Saturday, August 28, 2010
I wasn’t hiding the fact that there was a bit of pressure on last weekend and needless to say it was a great relief not to mention a lot of satisfaction when Pathfork made it two wins from two in the Galileo EBF Futurity Group 2 Stakes at The Curragh.
It was absolutely brilliant and everything went as we hoped it would. We had a similar plan to what we used for Laughing Lashes a few weeks before. In fact they were both drawn in exactly the same place on the inside, jumped out, got a place, had a clear run and away we went after half way.
He hit the front at just about the two furlong marker and stayed on really well to win by a length and a half. He’s a very laidback horse and Fran Berry said he was always cruising and only really getting going at the end.
We’ve always rated him highly but you’d have to say that we were a little surprised by how easily he won the race. He was going from winning a maiden to a Group 2 race against horses with Group 1 form. When you’re stepping up, you just don’t know.
He’s a Group 2 winner now and there are a lot of options which we haven’t really discussed with the owners yet. You could go to the National Stakes, the Dewhurst or the Beresford.
The Hamiltons were over to watch the race last weekend from their home in Kentucky so it was really pleasing that the horse put in such a good performance for them.
The really good news is that Pathfork has come out of the race incredibly well and we had to canter him again on Wednesday because he was bucking and kicking. I couldn’t be happier with him.
Ben McElroy is involved as well, as he is with Laughing Lashes who we supplemented for the Moyglare Stud Stakes tomorrow. There are 12 declared for the Group 1 and it’s a huge step up but she earned the right to that step up when winning three weeks ago.
She’s in good form but obviously Memory, from the Richard Hannon yard, is a very good horse with three wins from three. She’s done everything right so far and she’s more experienced than Pathfork which should help her but we’ll see tomorrow. It’s all to play for.
I have said it more than once in the course of doing this column that there is nothing like racing for keeping your feet on the ground. There are reminders all the time that for every bit of fortune or success, there’s plenty of bad luck around the corner. You can never get too big for your boots in this game.
I lost two of my jockeys to injury this week and Kate will be out of action for a few weeks as well after another fall.
Shane Foley fell off a horse down at the stalls in Bellewstown on Wednesday and broke his left collarbone and right ankle. Then Willie Supple was breaking a horse on Thursday morning when he fractured his left collarbone.
We had enough dramas to keep us going for a long while to be honest. Kate had a fall on the gallops on Wednesday when the horse just dropped down on her. We don’t really know what happened but she took a very heavy fall and we spent the day with her at Naas Hospital.
She had an x-ray and MRI and got the all-clear thankfully. They let her out the next day but she will have a collar around her neck for a while. It was quite a scare but she’ll be alright.
We were delighted with Gimli’s Rock winning in Ballinrobe on Sunday. He might have only won by a head but he was giving two stone to the second and third so it was a wonderful effort especially as he made a nonsense of the last hurdle.
Greenbelt Star ran a very good race to be beaten just a neck by Zaralabad at Bellewstown on Wednesday and he will probably go on to run in another flat race now
On Thursday Takeyourcapoff won her maiden hurdle well at Bellewstown. I was thrilled as she did it very well, improved for her first run and seemed to really enjoy it. I was also delighted with Blaze Brightly who finished second in a listed race at Tipperary. As a filly, it’s always good to get a bit of black type.
Magical Memoir and Where’s My Slave are in good form ahead of running in Galway today. I was hoping to run a nice four-year-old there called True Character but that little plan went out the window with the ground heading towards good to firm.
Tomorrow, apart from Laughing Lashes, Baby Boomer is a first-time out Big Bad Bob so it will be interesting to see how that goes.
I couldn’t be happier with my crop of juveniles this year. It’s the best flat season I have ever had and the fact that they are all horses that have been brought to me rather than us buying them ourselves is better again.
I know Back Burner got beaten during the week but he ran very green and was a little flat after the race so we’re going to have a look and see what’s wrong with him.
Overall though, it has been unbelievable but nobody is getting carried away because this is racing and racing is the greatest leveller of them all.
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