If I had a yard full of horses that tried like 13 year old Mr Mafia then my job would be so easy! He is simply a pleasure to train and he really does love being a racehorse. At Southwell on Tuesday I really did think he was up against it and the market did too with his 4 other rivals all being at least 4x shorter in the betting and also all being at least 5 years his junior.
However, Mr Mafia soon jumped his way to the front and, once he’s there and in a rhythm, he’s hard to peg back and after multiple great leaps, on the final circuit he got all but one of his rivals off the bridle. Approaching 3 out we thought he could win however he’d bumped into a very well handicapped, improving, opponent carrying 11lbs less than him and 5 years younger and so he finished an honorable 2nd. In doing so he has boosted his lifetime prize money won to within £1000 of £100,000 – what a legend he is. He just keeps giving us so much fun and hopefully he’ll find an opportunity to get his head in front again this summer despite being 1lb off his highest ever mark.
Yesterday James Best, Sean Bowen and Finn Lambert were in and we schooled a few of the horses on our gallops including Codey Jones, Ten Past Midnight, Run A Rig, Culverwell, Chenery and Herecomeshogan. They all schooled well and a video is being compiled!
Two runners at Worcester evening meeting tonight. Codey Jones makes his debut for us in the 2m Maiden Hurdle at 7.25pm He has been running in Point to Points for Claire Hart and runs in the colours of the 360 Racing Club. It looks a hot race but he seems in good form and we hope he’ll give us some encouragement for the future.
Herecomeshogan runs in the following race – a Handicap Hurdle over 2m 7f. In my opinion he’s been really harshly treated by the Handicapper as he has to carry top weight tonight of 12 stone and has shown far less than quite a few of his lower weighted rivals – a few have won races too. For example, he finished behind Windy Cove in March, who I also train, and who has since won and been 3rd twice over hurdles and she remains on a mark of 87 yet Hogan was given a mark of 100 and has since been dropped just 1lb so has a big ask tonight. He’ll enjoy the ground though and has been pleasing us at home and needs a run.