Favourites hoping for scent of success
A racing syndicate will be celebrating a rags-to-riches story if diminutive bargain-buy mare Evening Scent (ridden by Barry Geraghty) can lift the €130,000 Pierse Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday.
The Favourites Racing Syndicate has already been boosted by the decision of former Irish champion jockey Geraghty to partner their horse in preference to second-favourite Emotional Moment.
And the England-based club – which has around 20 horses in training with one-twelfth ownership shares among 60 members – also has an exciting Cheltenham contender in the shape of revitalised Montalcino who recently beat First Love 15 lengths on his chasing debut at Newbury – his first start for the syndicate.
Seven-year-old Evening Scent has been a revelation since being bought for 7000 guineas at the Doncaster Sales in May 2001 and sent to Jessica Harrington in Ireland.
“Since then she has won five races out of ten for us and been placed as well,” said the syndicate’s racing manager Jack Cockburn. “She’s won on the flat and over hurdles and she just hasn’t stopped improving.”
Four of those wins came in the spell of 36 days last spring and included success in a £30,000 handicap on the flat at the Curragh. Her most recent exploits were an easy victory in a handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse and a good second to Some Buzz at Leopardstown in December.
The horse was a 45-rated handicapper plying her trade on the sand at Southwell just two years ago and Cockburn thinks she must be one of the smallest horses in training. “She’s only 148 cms, which is about 14.3 hands.
“We bought her with the long-term view of using her as a brood mare. We just put her in a field for a while and she was bucking and kicking so we sent her to Jessica and she won the first time she ran for us.”
Montalcino was among the horses Favourites Racing acquired when it bought out The Winning Line syndicate in May last year.
“His form had tailed off quite badly at end of last season,” said Cockburn. “He ran really badly at the Punchestown Festival. We asked Martin Pipe if he wanted to take him and he said he would. He’s taken his time with him and worked wonders. He was very impressive when winning at Newbury.
“He’ll definitely have a Cheltenham entry though we don’t know which race he’ll go for yet. He should be out again quite soon.
“A lot of our owners already had shares in horses with The Winning Line. But whereas that was a tipping service we’re expanding more along social lines with stable visits and the like. The aim is to treat each member as the owner of the horse and keep them all informed about everything.”
So there’ll be no shortage of vocal support for Evening Scent in the Pierse Hurdle, for which she was cut from 14-1 to 9-1 by one leading bookmaker on Wednesday.
“It’s a really competitive race but if the ground’s really soft she’ll have a great chance,” said Cockburn.
