As on the opening day of the Salisbury’s two-day meeting, three of the four runners found their way into the winner’s enclosure, but this time two entered the number one spot. While the pair at Windsor also shaped creditably and all six runners came home with some prize money, taking our tally past £55,000 with SIX wins in the bag, a good start to the year as we head into May.
STEVEE (pictured – thanks to Brain Kedward) got our two-year-olds off the mark for 2018 with a game success in the opener. He ran a promising race when staying on strongly for third on debut at Bath and with that experience under his belt (the only one of the five runner field) we were hopeful of a good run if handling the heavy conditions. He was professional throughout the race and used his stamina to good effect to claim victory inside the final furlong. His sire Lethal Force’s offspring do not have a great record on soft ground so it may be that he won despite the conditions and he is already crying out for six furlongs. It was also poignant that we won a race run in memory of Nerys and Simon Dutfield, who were invaluable in helping us in the early days of out training career before Nerys started training herself and the pair are dearly missed.
MASTER GREY got the double up by landing the three-year-old 1m6f handicap, which was a relief to all concerned after such a disappointing return at Kempton. Although it is debatable what he achieved in a three-runner race run on such heavy ground, he did it with ease and that will certainly boost his confidence. He is a lovely looking son of Mastercraftsman (sire of Master Carpenter) that has strengthened up nicely over the winter so hopefully he will now go onto better things.
HAWRIDGE FLYER travelled with plenty of enthusiasm on his stable debut and did best of those that raced handily to finish third in a competitive handicap at Windsor. He is likely to come on plenty for his return and showed he can handle a sound surface. While disappointing on the face of it in fourth, GLORY OF PARIS travelled very strongly but perhaps saw too much daylight and was beaten by horses with form over much further, a huge advantage in that ground. SIR PLATO shaped nicely finishing fifth back at Windsor but ten furlongs did stretch him and RED MIRACLE seemed to struggle on the heavy surface at Salisbury.