A busy Saturday for the stable as four runners were sent to Essex for The Gentlemens Day at the county showground near Chelmsford and with Liam Keniry booked for all four rides, hopes were high that a positive day lay ahead,
Queen of Burgundy (QB) was first into action and went off a 7/1 third favourite in a 6F race. Tracking the leaders throughout she was nicely placed to make her challenge entering the home straight but despite passing the leaders, she was unable to hold off the fast finishing Swiss Pride and eventual winner Thegreatestshowman. Another good performance from QB with some nice prizemoney for 3rd place, moving her ever closer to the top of the stable leader board.
Mazmerize was in a 7F race and we were looking for signs of improvement after his two previous races. From the stalls opening he was at the rear of the pack having been outpaced early on. Alas, it would look like the penny has still to drop for Mazmerize and Liam stopped riding down the home straight for what must be seen as a disappointing effort.
Old favourite Percy Toplis (Percy) then came out for a 1m 2f event and Liam was advised as to what he was likely to experience on Percy. On stalls opening Percy found himself, as usual, towards the back of the pack and Liam sat in the group. With 3F to go Percy was asked for his effort and he started to carve his way through the field and with the line fast approaching he was eventually in a photo for 2nd place – maybe 50 more yards and he would have been in front, but another great effort from Percy Toplis in finishing 3rd and Liam giving feedback that the horse loved the race and enjoyed himself in the pack, which is always nice to hear.
Finally Hidden Dream (Cassie) came out for the last race of the day and was in a 1m 2f handicap, and with a number of us having betting slips including an each way treble, a top three finish was what we were hoping for. Unfortunately Cassie unusually, missed the break and was never running in her normal smooth action and because of this she never got on terms with the pace and finished in 5th place.
With two visits to the winners enclosure, a nice day was had by all the group and we dust ourselves down and head off to Yarmouth for racing this next week.
Happy racing everyone.
Update written by Paul Eggett.