A Friday double of wins from Ventura Lightning and Jen's Boy

Sat 27 Jul 2019

VENTURA LIGHTNING made his debut over 5 furlongs at Thirsk yesterday for Richard Fahey. Our most expensive ever purchase, we bought the son of the red hot sire No Nay Never from the Arqana Breeze - up sale in October for €160,000. We made sure that Tony Hamilton was jocked up on him, as he had ridden him in work at home and had built a good rapport with our colt. The race worked out perfectly for him from an educational perspective, as he needed to be steered around horses and through horses when asked to quicken, which he did nicely. What was even better when you watch the race back, is you will see that Tony just used hands and heels to get his head in front. The Racing TV commentary team summed it up very well: "He was just a little bit green and comes off the bridle at half way, pushed out by Tony though he keeps on responding. He showed a good attitude to go through the gap and stretch out to win, without Tony needing to get to the bottom of him. He's likely to improve over further and for the experience and it's just been all from hands and heels. The winner is comfortably the best horse on the day." 

He was selected by the Racing Post as their 'eyecatcher' from the meeting: "Ventura Lightning (2.45) is a potentially useful sprinter." and Coolmore, who stand No Nay Never wrote this about him: https://coolmore.com/farms/ireland/news/pricey-no-nay-never-colt-makes-winning-debut

There were lovely scenes on Racing TV afterwards as many of his new syndicate were at Thirsk to cheer him back in - well done everyone! The official photos can be seen here: http://www.thirskracephotos.co.uk/photo39214754.html#photo

JEN'S BOY went up in trip to 2m 7.5f over hurdles at Uttoxeter for Nicky Henderson. He ran well to be 2nd on his latest start at Worcester, this time he was running with the addition of cheek pieces and had 1/2 a furlong further in trip.

Right from the start, he looked very happy towards the front and soon after the first hurdle, went on to lead. With his ears pricked, Nico de Boinville got him into a lovely rhythm. Hurdle after hurdle he had the rest of the field one by one working to stay in touch, until two out when there were just the two of them clear. Beginning to idle in front. Nico gave him a reminder over the last as he was challenged, but responded well to stay in front to win by a head, the two of them 33 lengths away from the 3rd horse home. The step up in trip has looked like a fine move, so we hope he can go on from this win.

A well deserved victory for his owners, so very well done everyone - lovely to see many of them there yesterday. The Jen's Boy official photos can be seen here: https://www.nigelkirbyphotography.com/Horse-Racing/Uttoxeter-Racecourse/Uttoxeter-2019/Uttoxeter-Races-Fri-26-July-19/

The double takes us to 52 winners for the year now, so we are looking good on the results score. 50% of our runners have either won or been in the winners' enclosure and we head next week to the Qatar Goodood Festival with some fancy entries! See them, as ever here: http://www.middlehamparkracing.net/entries.htm