It was a busy day of racing around Britain with six strong cards on the flat, including Listed action at Hamilton and Newbury. Elsewhere, Hayley Turner made her ‘return’ at Newmarket, but was out of luck and at Haydock and Nottingham there was some intriguing racing. All in all it sets the tone nicely for a busy Saturday’s racing.
Newbury:
2 00 ESCOBAR (H Palmer) 16/1, C4 2YO Maiden, 7F, Good to Firm
This 280,000 Euro purchase was extremely green in the preliminaries, but then miraculously managed to settle well throughout the race. These are certainly encouraging signs, in what should prove to be a useful 2YO race. He holds G1 entries and must have some talent to act up as he did, and then still managing to win so comfortably on debut.
3 40 MOKARRIS (S Crisford) 9/4, Listed 2YO, 6F, Good to Firm
Mokarris was an assertive winner of the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes at Newbury and looked a class apart from his rivals. The time was a good one and this was whilst crossing the line with buckets of energy left. He has an almighty turn of foot and the Gimrack is the logical next step you would assume. He appears to be versatile on the ground, although the quicker surface today seems to have brought out the best in him. He put the race to bed as soon as he pulled out from the tracked leaders and gets the award for the eye catching performance of the day.
Hamilton:
7 40 ORION’S BOW (D Nicholls) 13/2, C2 Handicap, 6F, Soft
David Nicholl’s sprinter is on a remarkable run of victories and managed to make it five in a row in the Scottish Stewards Cup on Friday evening. It is not often a competitive handicap such as this is won so easily, emphasising the strength of run. The Stewards Cup at Glorious Goodwood is the likely next step and has already been installed as the joint-favourite. He has gone from a 69 rated average sprinter to now an anticipated mark of over 100 and a possible group horse in the near future, a remarkable change of fortune and training effort from all connected.
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