What a great evening at Stratford last night with Spice Girl winning on only her second racecourse appearance. Sent to us in the summer of 2015 from Breeder Richard Davies who was then joined in ownership by Mark Holland who is also in the Ballymountain Boy partnership (our first winner of the season) however she didn’t take to training and so was turned away for the winter and returned last Summer a much stronger filly both mentally and physically. She has always been a filly I liked a lot. Things didn’t go her way on her debut at Huntingdon but she finished well to eventually not be beaten too far. We then headed to Cheltenham on New Years Day but the ground went very soft and we persuaded them not to run her.
Patience has paid off for them thankfully as earlier this year she was sick and has also had frustrating foot issues too so a big thank you to our farrier Nick Partridge for getting her right.
She’s always had an engine though but when Richard Johnson pressed the button turning for home last night even I was impressed with her attitude as she quickened in good style. I told Richard she was tough and she certainly showed that yesterday. Her win understandably thrilled Richard and his family who were there to celebrate and Mark too and I’m sure our celebrations were the loudest of the night as they all gave her a good shout home!
She’s A1 today and out in the field. Lots of the others still in full training spent the evening out in their paddocks last night which they seem to enjoy at the weekends. Spice Girl and a couple of others stayed in as I wanted her to relax in her box but she’s out today and you’d not believe that she had a race last night! Delighted for all and a real example of how patience in racing is so often rewarded. Great to register our fourth winner of the season and the third winner this season that Champion Jockey Richard Johnson has ridden too!