Fago suffers an upset defeat in Kilbrittain Castle Novices' Chase
Fago suffered an upset defeat in the Kilbrittain Castle Novices' Chase (Class 2) at Sandown in England on Friday, February 22, 2013. He was rated as the outright favourite to succeed, but failed to come anywhere close to the winner, Kapga De Cerisy.
Only three runners took part in yesterday’s race and the punters had shown immense confidence in the abilities of Fago, who entered the competition with a starting price of 2 to 5. He seemed to be in good shape at the start, but started falling back with
the passage of time.
The five-year-old challenger was not even able to fight for the first place, as he was left way behind in the end. He simply couldn’t do anything towards the final few yards, as the winning stallion had created a massive gap of 15 lengths.
His jockey, Ruby Walsh was not overly disappointed with the result and said, “He was fluent enough over the early fences but then he got rusty. You have to remember that he was coming here after having a busy season in France and that was the way he rode
- like a horse who had already had a busy season and not one who was peaking towards a major target. I wouldn't give up on him.”
Fago has participated in a total of 12 races and his performances in them have been quite decent. He hasn’t been able to maintain a high winning percentage, but he has been good enough to earn three victories since making his debut. Other than that, he has
finished as a runner up on four times whereas secured the third spot on a couple of occasions.
Compared to him, Kapga De Cerisy’s record is not that good, but he has managed to win four times out of 18 attempts. His recent form appears to be really good though and his team will be expecting some quality stuff from him.
His trainer Venetia Williams said: “He'll go to Cheltenham now, where his only options are the various handicaps. I've put him in everything, and I'm hoping the proximity of the third will stop the handicapper from over-reacting. The ground was a worry,
but it's not anymore.”
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