What a win for Herecomeshogan and The Cotswold Lockdowners – quite fantastic. Some days are very special and Newton Abbot was one of them. He jumped well and travelled so easily however did look booked for 2nd place however Finn & Hogan had other ideas and weren’t to be denied – a gutsy performance and putting their fall at the 2nd last into our distant memory. What an intelligent ride too.
For some of The Cotswold Lockdowners it was their very first winner as an owner and the excitement and emotion from those able to be at the racecourse was absolutely wonderful to be a part of. The joy of winning – how I wish it could be bottled! Fabulous and so thrilled for the owners who became involved with him, as the syndicate name suggests, in Lockdown and, whilst one of the main aims of the 125 person syndicate was to follow the journey of a young horse from the beginning of his racing career and throughout his daily training, we obviously hoped he’d be successful on the racecourse too. After three placed runs since his debut in May 2021, his win yesterday was the icing on the cake and, with a big frame still to be filled, I’m sure we will have plenty more success and fun with him.
Mr Mafia once again gave his all, later in the card, but despite jumping for fun he just failed to give 13lbs to a rival 3 years his junior. He did us proud though and what a horse he is to have anything to do with, he never stops trying. Peter & Jane Boggis love him so much too and had a great evening, despite obviously being disappointed, as we all were, that he couldn’t quite get his head in front again. I’ve never before had a phone call on the drive home from a Clerk of the Course who was “gutted” for us that our wonderful old boy was beaten…thanks very much to Jason Loosemore for the call, it was much appreciated and just shows how much these older horses are adored by so many in racing. He’s A1 this morning despite losing a front shoe and is full of polos, carrots and now out in the field adding grass to that list! Good old Maf!
We took Kalibrate (James Best) and Genovese (Harry Atkins) to Ben Brain’s for an ‘away day’ to use another gallop and they both behaved very well. Genovese is unraced and Kalibrate has had one run albeit he had a muscle problem so we needed to ensure that any memory of this was put out of his mind. Really pleased with them both.