A Latte To Like!
Mon 11 Sep 2023
WINNER 83 OF 2023: THE COFFEE POD, trained by Richard Hannon and ridden by PJ MDonald: The £30k Class 2 'Ire Incentive, It Pays to Buy Irish EBF Novice Stakes' over 6f at York.
The son of Acclamation, was having his third start, after taking a very close 3rd in the Ripon Hornblower Novice last time out (by a shd and a shd!)
Drawn towards the stands side, he broke well and along with our other runner, Ziggy's Condor, they travelled alone on the near side, with The Coffee Pod in front. Still travelling on the bridle, as others were being asked to quicken, PJ pushed him along coming to the final furlong. He kept on well and was always doing enough inside the final furlong, to win by a length.
Ziggy's Condor ran well under a penalty to take 3rd also.
"The Hornblower 3rd, goes two places better today." Watch the full race replay here: https://www.racingtv.com/results/uk/463498-york/10-Sep-2023/1340
Timeform rated it as an 89+ performance, saying: "Looked the pick on form and duly made it third time lucky; led, shaken up over 1f out, in command final 1f, ridden out; he's made a really bright start and looks a useful performer in the making.”
PJ told us after the race: "He's very straighforward, I just let him jump and do his own thing. He's won as he likes and hopefully he will keep progressing.”
Read the Racing Post comments, here: https://www.racingpost.com/news/reports/hes-been-better-than-ever-penalised-commanche-falls-flies-home-to-land-garrowby-stakes-awV2d8u9h9RO
Syndicate manager Tim says: "It's nice when a plan comes together! He is a good stamp of a horse and still has some filling out to do so taking a race like this as a 2yo is a good start. The Hornblower form has worked out well and we had this race in mind since then. We will see what the handicapper does and take it from there, but it also looks like he could appeciate a bit further too. Congratulations to his syndicate on a decent payday - as you can see below! He cost 50,000gns at The Craven Breeze Ups in April, so he has virtually paid for himself in one fell swoop and it’s fair to say he’s already worth more than we paid for him."
Tim goes on to say: "It was lovely to be there and celebrate with his owners and thank you to Racing TV for the interview - especially as I was able to speak about the marvellous performance of SHOULDVEBEENARING, taking 2nd in the Group 1 Sprint Cup at Haydock on Saturday. He took us over £1.9 million of prize money won this year and so the good form continues."
You can watch Tim's interview. here: