An early start on Sunday reaped rewards as Sarasota Star won at Carlisle for the second time, this time under Conditional Rex Dingle who was having his first ride for us.
A race we’d planned out quite some weeks ago – it was a hurdle race for Conditional Jockeys and as Rex had ridden a few winners already this season for part-owner and our Chairman Jon Hughes, Jon was keen for him to ride, Rex came and schooled Sarasota a couple of weeks ago as he’s still only 4 and occasionally not the most natural over a hurdle and it paid off with Sarasota Star digging deep all the way to the line to win by a neck.
Absolutely thrilled for owners Jon Hughes and Torben Dal, for the Team at home and for Belinda who rides him out every day and made the long journey up with Deb Butler who shared the driving. They left before 5.10am and Deb lives 45 mins away so had the earliest start! Sarasota Star is a lovely horse who is sure to give us even more fun. Well done all.
Mozzaro ran in the concluding bumper and Deb rides him out every day as well as being one of his part owners. James Best once again was on board and he wouldn’t have been suited by Carlisle switching their hurdle course from the outside of the fences to the inside flat course making it far sharper as Mozzaro is a big horse and still a big baby. He’s a horse that has taken time and he is still green but he ran a lovely race to finish 4th and is now ready to be schooled up and run over hurdles where I’m sure he’ll continue to learn and improve. James likes him a lot too.
They were home by 9pm and the fact they both ran so well certainly helped their long day!
Capricia, meanwhile, ran at Leicester under Lilly Pinchin but the race wasn’t run to suit, she didn’t enjoy the tacky ground and eventually could only finish 6th. She’s better than that and we will give her time to get over that run and return on more decent ground.
Today we have two runners at Southwell and it is fabulous to see Kazontherazz make her racecourse debut for The Meagher Family. She’s a half sister to our Cheltenham winner Back On The Lash and Pinnacle Peak but has taken quite some time to get to the track. We were hoping she’d have made her debut this time last year but for one thing and another it just hasn’t happened.
She’s recently spent quite a few weeks at Jason & Lauren Maguire’s Pre-Training and Rehabilitation Centre Ivy Lodge Farm – enjoying time on their water treadmill and in their Equine Spa and enjoyed plenty of TLC whilst there. It is, I’m sure, a huge thanks to them that we have got her to the track in one piece and looking so well. She is a little bit underdone and will come on for the run but she’s fit enough to do herself justice and I was anxious not to be too hard on her at home and cause something else to go wrong. She will hopefully settle in the hood and it’s a Conditional Jockeys’ Bumper so Lilly Pinchin, who came and sat on her last Saturday, will ride.
Later in the afternoon another mare, Cut And Run, is in the final race for owner/breeder Zara Tindall. She reverts to hurdles after a run over fences at Warwick which she didn’t really enjoy. She looks a picture and seems very well in herself so it would be great if she could put a couple of disappointing runs behind her on the better ground she should enjoy.
It’s great to see the horses winning and, if not winning, generally running really well. It makes all the hard work my team put into them day in, day out, so much easier and long may they continue to stay healthy and well.