Temple Meads too fast in Super Sprint
Not many bargains cost £16,000 but Temple Meads proved himself value for money when won the Weatherbys Super Sprint at Newbury.
The conditions of the race means that horses who cost less than £47,500 carry less weight, which left Temple Meads with 8st 6lb. That still put him some way ahead of Bold Bidder in the weights, who had at only £10,000, carried just 7st 13lb.
But, when it comes to weighing up the chances of runners in the Super Sprint, then Richard Hannon has to enter the calculations. Hannon had won the race four times in the last seven years, seven times in all since it was first run in 1991 and saddled six of the 25 runners in this year’s race.
The pick of them, by the trainer’s own admission, was Reckless Reward, who finished runner-up to Approve in the Group Two Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot last month. And, despite Reckless Reward having to concede weight to most of the field, he was sent off as the market leader when the stalls opened – minus Arctic Feeling who was withdrawn at the start, having spread a plate.
The chances of many of the rest getting into the race were reduced by Bold Bidder. Louis-Philippe Beuzelin was making the full use of the weight of the advantage that Kevin Ryan’s filly had in this five-furlong dash. She was in front virtually from the moment the stalls opened and Bold Bidder had opened up a two-length lead by halfway.
The only two horses who looked as though they had any chance of catching the leader were her stable companion, Shoshoni Wind, and Temple Meads. Richard Mullen had not chased the early pace on Temple Meads, who is bred to stay further than this, and joined the leader with a furlong to run to come clear just over a hundred yards from the line and win a by a comfortable-looking length from Bold Bidder, with Move In Time third and Hannon with a best placing of 10th with Reckless Reward.
Plenty of owners have paid the price for reckless spending with precious little reward but Fretwell, a man who is not slow to sell a horse on if the price is right, believes that this horse could be the best that he has ever had run in his lime-green colours.
Explaining the colt’s absence from the track, the owner said: “He had hypoplasia, spots in the throat, and it was sad because we thought he was a Royal Ascot horse. But I won’t run then there unless they’ve got a chance and this horse has got everything. I’ve said all along that he’s a two-year-old in a three-year-old’s body.
“This horse is the best horse I’ve ever had – and we’ve had Vital Equine, we’ve had Always Hopeful, we’ve had Silent Times – Group Two winners. This horse is class, and he’ll win a Group race next time. It’s his temperament, how he is, he’s so laid back. Edward’s had a nightmare with him.”
“He’s had one or two little problem,” the trainer said, probably heavy on the understatement. “We’ve got a Gimcrack entry so I think we’ll go there. The track [at York] will suit him and the step up to six won’t be a problem.”
Not every horse proves value for money straight off. Sheikh Mohammed paid 430,000gns for a colt in October 2005 who was named Regal Parade. He started well enough, winning his first three starts for Mark Johnson but never quite cut for his owner. Back to the sales ring two years later and this time David Nicholls paid just 16,000gns.
Five more wins which included a handicap at Royal Ascot, the Ayr Gold Cup and the Group One Sprint Cup at Haydock Park last September. The winning run had dried up after that but there had been enough rain at Newbury to suit in the Group Three Shadwell Hackwood Stakes.
Markab and Fravashi set the pace but once Adrian Nicholls set for home there was only one horse on the race as Regal Parade (pictured) came three lengths clear of High Standing. “He’s a different horse with this cut in the ground,” the jockey said. “I rode him pretty much like I did at Haydock. He likes to have something to run at. I knew he’d get all that trip, he gets seven furlongs, so I gave him a dig in the belly two-and-a-half down and that was it – race put to bed. I just pressed the button and he just went.
“He’s a legend of a horse, he’s back in winning ways and onwards an upwards now.”
The progression has been pretty much upwards for David Simcock, who was saddling his fourth winner with his last seven runners, when First City won the Bathwick Tyres EBF Fillies’ Handicap, who got the better of a battle with Gobama for Hayley Turner. The only moment of worry was in the final strides when First City edged right and bumped the runner-up, which brought a stewards’ inquiry.
“It suited me because, if they were going a slow gallop, she’d have took more of a hold. She did for the first half a furlong and then they went on a stride and she relaxed. She’s was always travelling well and I thought I was going to win it comfortably and then she had a battle. I think we had a little bit of a bump just before the line but I don’t think it made any difference. She’s a tough filly,” Turner said.
It was the sort of power-packed finish that gives a lie to the old prejudice that female jockeys lack the necessary strength in the finish in the professional game. And Turner admitted that she had to do the job unaided.
“I couldn’t have my weetabix,” she said “because I’ve got eight-three in the next.”
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