Monthly Archives: May 2018

AQUA LIBRE, having her first run since October in the Molson Group Handicap at Bath, had raced on quick ground earlier in her career. Despite that, she seemed to have confined her best runs to the all-weather, where she won as a two year old. Since moving to the yard last year, we had only had the chance to try her on softer ground, so it was something of an experiment to try her on ground so fast today. It seemed that enough of the racegoers at Bath seemed to think she wouldn't be inconvenienced by the conditions, as her price shortened from 10/1 into 7/1, and Eddy Greatrex gave her a great ride. He grabbed the rail and made virtually all the running. The mare stayed on well inside the final furlong to open her account on turf in game fashion, so we are very pleased to be able to wish owner Mrs Donna Hopkins our hearty congratulations!

In the two and a half mile Handicap Chase at Bangor, a bold ride from the front sealed the result for ZOLFO, a 6 year old gelding by Cloudings. He was placed in a PTP in Ireland before coming over to England, and had also been placed a couple of times for us prior to this. He should have a good future, but despite his racecourse experience he is still a bit of a baby who we expect will develop physically and improve as time goes on.

He was able to see this field off very comfortably in the end despite being off for nearly ten months, and showed plenty of enthusiasm over his fences throughout. Always prominent, he was a couple of lengths in front approaching the last, and really asserted his superiority on the run-in to win easily by 6 lengths. A great day in the sunshine at Bangor for jockey Sean Quinlan and owners Mr and Mrs Clarke, who nearly enjoyed a double only a few hours later when Tanarpino was frustratingly just beaten by a neck at Uttoxeter!