A Marvellous Milestone, Thanks to Motawaafeq
Sun 05 Sep 2021
WINNER 79 OF 2021 and our 1,250th overall: MOTAWAAFEQ, trained by Mick Appleby and ridden by Jim Crowley: 'The Try Our New Price Boosts at Unibet Handicap' over 1m at Kempton.
Back after a 71 day break, he broke smartly and pulled his way to the front; taking a keen hold, but with his ears pricked. At the cut away in the home straight, it looked as though he would be caught from a strong challenge, but he battled on, with his ears pinned back in determined fashion inside the final furlong, gamely hanging on, to win by a head.
"So game and tough! Motawaafeq has won." (The commentator hadn't picked up on the jockey change, it was Jim Crowley in the saddle, replacing Josephine Gordon, who was stuck in traffic.) Watch the full race replay here: https://www.racingtv.com/videos/watch/horse_racing_replays/352995-try-our-new-price-boosts-at-unibet-handicap-5
Timeform rated it as A JOINT CAREER BEST p85, he really does bring his best off a break. It was the final race on the card at Kempton and no sooner had the horses left the winners enclosure the post race party started and Martin Kemp launched into his DJ set! There was no interview with connections and poor Nick Luck tried his hardest to round up the day on Racing TV, but gave up, as the background noise took over!
Another good day of results from our runners, with SHARVARA taking 3rd on his second start, COPPER KNIGHT, who almost backed up his Ebor Festival win, with a 2nd place and STAR SHIELD, making his traditional late run and seeing the line come too soon - he was also 2nd!
Syndicate manager Tim says: "Congratulations to his owners. That was a good ride, a good plan and a good, tenacious victory. He fought back to repel all raiders in the finishing straight to bring up our 1,250th winner, which we are all delighted about. We also passed £800,000 of race prize money earned this year too yesterday, so things are looking rosy for #TeamMPR. We have also enjoyed stable visits (I was in Newmarket hosting owners yesterday) and many owners have been racing, as the winners have continued to flow. Happy days all round and long may it continue. Thank you to our trainers, stable staff and jockeys for their hard work and a big shout to the many racecourses who have helped fulfil race day badge requests for us.