30 January 2023
So finally the thaw arrived and we were back in action on Friday with 5 runners! Maninsane kicked off the day in fine style with Lilly booting him home only to be denied by a length for his syndicate Barrels of Courage, another great run from him. This was followed 10 minutes later by Parramount kicking off the afternoon’s runners at Doncaster. He managed to win going away by 21 lengths, this was mightily impressive under a well judged ride by Bradley Roberts. Huge congratulations to Andrew, Marrietta and the whole Fox-Pitt team. Gaelic Park was next up under Paul O’Brien in the Maiden Hurdle at Doncaster. He had every chance of winning approaching the last hurdle, when he got interfered with. After a lengthy Stewards enquiry placings remained unaltered and we had to settle for second. This was still however a great run, and he will surely be back in the winners enclosure very soon. Stroll on by and Hector Javilex both came 4th in their respective races. Stroll on By lacks the strength to finish his races at the moment but he remains an exciting prospect for the future as he carries on growing and strengthening. Hector did not appreciate Huntingdon maybe as much as Cheltenham but still ran a good race.
Saturday brought a really exciting day for the team with Snow Leopardess running for the first time around the XC course at Cheltenham and Tea For Free running in the Sky Bet Chase at Doncaster. Snow ran a blinder around the fences at Cheltenham and just tired coming up the hill, Aiden Coleman reported she really loved the race and so did he!
Tea for Free was running a real stormer of a race until he and Lilly came down at the second last. Thankfully all is well with them both albeit leaving them both sore and needing a bit of box rest! Fingers crossed we will see Tea out again next season none the worse, and Lilly back riding in a couple of weeks. Racing really is an emotional roller coaster!
