A fabulous evening at Stratford last night with Duke of Luckley winning his 8th race for us under a super ride from Freddie. Just four runners and the Dan Skelton horse trying to win it’s 8th race on the bounce, Freddie sat off the initial pace as he didn’t want to push Duke out of his comfort zone on a track that isn’t ideal for him. However, the race started to fall apart and Freddie & Duke took up the running before 2 out and just had to pop home to win by an easy 26 lengths in first time blinkers.
Absolutely thrilled for all the owners in Duke of Luckley – most have been involved in Duke since he was a foal. Some of his owners are relatively new into him though but equally fabulous for them all, a really lovely group of people. Duke is in a rich vein of form and is all good this morning so a long day out in the field awaits.
Work morning and James Best in to ride out too. The winter horses upping their workload but we desperately need rain which frustratingly keeps missing us. Freddie reported his journey back to Ditcheat last night was in torrential rain but we, once again, didn’t get a drop – tomorrow it doesn’t look like it will miss us so fingers crossed!