Libertarian takes surprise victory in Betfred Dante Stakes
Libertarian took all his opponents by surprise in the Betfred Dante Stakes (Group 2) at York in England on Thursday, May 16, 2013. He was one of the least favourite runners to succeed in the race, but managed to deliver a quality run in the end.
The three-year-old colt entered the race with a starting price of 33 to 1 and no one would have expected him to be fighting at the front. He was patient during the opening phases of the race and did not waste his energy at all. Fortunately for him, none
of the other challengers managed to gain a massive advantage over him, which allowed him to fight back towards the final few yards.
Once the other stallions started running out of gas, Libertarian started pushing hard and came in a very strong position towards the final furlong. He was in the lead for the last 100 yards and no one managed to come closer to him in the end, which allowed
him to take the top spot by more than one length.
Karl Burke, representing his wife and Libertarian’s trainer Elaine said, “He's a proper horse, we've always thought a lot of him. Sandown was a nonsense of a race for him, he's such a green horse. He's a big backward animal and has taken a lot of time and
has done nothing but improve.”
On the other hand, second place went to Trading Leather, who was also not rated as the favourite to succeed in the race. Despite that, he was rated pretty highly and the bookies had expected him to fight for the top three places.
The young challenger did his best, but simply lacked the stamina to hold his position towards the final 100 yards of the race.
Despite that, his trainer Jim Bolger was happy with the result and said, “I'm very pleased. I couldn't be happier with him. Kevin [Manning] was always happy with him and thinks he'll get a mile and a half. He'll only run at Epsom if something goes wrong.”
Talking about Trading Leather’s future plans, his trainer revealed that the talented stallion might take part in the French Derby, depending on his form and fitness.
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