Havana Gold triumphs in Prix Jean Prat – Horseracing news
Havana Gold won a thrilling battle against San Marino Grey in the Prix Jean Prat (Group 1) in France.
The three-year-old colt was under immense pressure throughout the race, but he did well to hold off his rivals in the end. He was not given the best odds for victory because of a lacklustre showing in the past couple of events, but improved a lot and made
his team proud at the end of the day.
After the race, the victorious trainer Richard Hannon was ecstatic and said, “We're very pleased, he deserved it. He had a bad draw in the French Guineas and ran a blinder and this is his reward.”
He added, “He'll have a break now, that was his fourth race in quick succession, and we'll bring him back in the early autumn. I think he'll get a mile and a quarter, but he's done nothing wrong at a mile. Our options are open.”
After delivering some terrific results in the 2012 season, Havana Gold was expected to cause a lot of problems for his rivals. However, he was unable to meet the expectations of his camp and started losing confidence with the passage of time.
The Irish challenger finished as a runner up in his first outing this year, which seemed to be a decent result, but he was four lengths behind the winner, which suggested that he lacked the speed to battle for victories. His camp would have thought that
the performance was one-off, but that was not the case, as he struggled to deliver in the next several competitions.
As a result, Havana Gold was not sent into the Royal Ascot and was given a rest of almost one month, which allowed him to gain his form and confidence back. Although he won the Prix Jean Prat by a short neck distance, it was more than enough for his camp
to bag prize money of £162,601.
Overall, this was the fifth victory of Hannon’s trainee, who has taken part in a total of 10 races. His strike rate has now improved to 50 percent and it will be interesting to see whether he improves that in the coming events.
Tags: