Reckless Abandon overcomes inexperience to win Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot
Clive Cox’s 2-year-old juvenile, Reckless Abandon, was expected to be nervous at the big stage, but he showed no signs of inexperience, when sealing an excellent win in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot on Thursday, June 21st.
Under Adam Kirby, the novice raced in the centre group early on. He chased the leader in great fashion in the middle hours and his hard work paid off, when he established his dominance a couple of furlongs ahead of the finishing line.
He hung badly left a length before the post and his advantage was in clear danger. However, the dashing colt handled the situation quite brilliantly, keeping himself in the front row till the finish.
Gale Force Ten put plenty of pressure on Reckless Abandon, but failed to overtake him. Following an excellent effort, Clive Cox’s charge seized the top rank by ¾ a length.
A. P. O'Brien’s runner-up raced on the far-side early on and despite being in great position, he could not grab the winning prize. However, he did well to ensure the second spot by three quarters of a length.
Ian's Dream was lucky to finish among top-3, as Morawij created a lot of problems for him. Under Neil Callan, Roger Varian’s trainee ran well, but staying on one pace prevented him from notching up the third position. As a result, he fell fourth by a head’s
distance. Ahern completed the order of five.
Cox called Reckless Abandon’s success a team effort and expressed delight over his sprinter’s second consecutive triumph. He said after the race:
"He did it on his first start and in a perfect world, in a normal spring, he would have had a couple of runs (before running here). It's a great team effort to have the horse here in this kind of order and I'm delighted for the owners, who have been good
supporters.”
He continued: "He's very talented. Adam has done a grand job on him and I'm very proud. It's just greenness (that saw him hang to the rail) and I think most of my horses improve with racing."
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