Slow Pace clinches victory in La Coupe – Horseracing News
Slow Pace kept his cool in order to claim the La Coupe (Group 3) at Longchamp in France on Monday, June 10, 2013.
A total of eight runners had lined up for the all important contest and the competition was expected to be a tough one. However, the bookies decided to price Slow Pace as the favourite with a starting price of 14 to 5, which clearly
suggested that he was the stallion to beat.
The five-year-old gelding had a decent race overall but his camp would have been under immense pressure towards the ending moments of the race, as the winning stallion started losing ground, entering the final furlong.
Despite that, the American challenger managed to finish on top of the table by a short neck distance, which earned his owners a cash prize of £32,520.
The winning trainer Freddy Head was really happy with the result and praised his challenger by saying, “He's brave and he showed a good turn of pace so I'm delighted. He's good over 2,000m but in my opinion 2,400m is his real distance.
It's only in 12 days time but he might run in the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud, we'll see.”
Slow Pace has enjoyed a pretty decent start to this season and his team will be hoping that he continues delivering solid results in the future. His partnership with Olivier Peslier has really been fruitful for the camp and the
pair will definitely get the attention of the punters in major events with consistency.
On the other hand, jockey Stephane Pasquier also did a very good job to finish as a runner up with Smoking Sun. Although the pair missed out on a victory, their camp would have been satisfied with the result.
Looking at the performance of Smoking Sun, trainer Pascal Bary said, “He got a little held up in his run but it was a very good comeback. He could run in something like the Grand Prix de Vichy or the Prix Gontaut-Biron at Deauville,
or else we could go abroad with him - all three are possibilities.”
This was the first race of the season for the four-year-old colt and he will definitely be high on confidence right now, which will help him in future events.
Tags: