A Real Scottish Braveheart
Sat 22 Mar 2025
Winner 15 of 2025: FIERCE WARRIOR, trained by Nicky Henderson (OBE), and ridden by James Bowen. The ‘Ladbrokes Go North Brindisi Breeze Hurdle Series Final‘ over 3m at Musselburgh.
It would be a fair assessment that Nicky Henderson hasn’t had too many runners at Musselburgh in the past, which is mainly down to the long journey from his base Seven Barrows in county Berkshire to the Scottish coastal town, on the outskirts of Edinburgh; but once Racing Manager Tom Palin spotted the excellent prize money on offer, and the fact that Fierce Warrior was indeed qualified for this race, a plan was about to be plotted.
A wonderful sight, that so many owners had made their way up to Musselburgh, to cheer on our son of Sholokov, a dual winner prior to the race. In first-time cheek pieces, James Bowen kept our gelding prominent in the 14-runner field, and his jumping was fluid around the slightly sharper track. Turning for home, it momentarily looked as if the eventual second had nicked a couple of lengths from the rest of the field, but our gelding dug deep under a brilliant James Bowen, and powered home to win comfortably by 1 ½ lengths.
Watch the full race replay: https://www.racingtv.com/watch/replays/2025-03-21/musselburgh/1625
Timeform rated his victory with a 109, saying: "Benefited from the step back up in trip to go one better than last time and bag a good pot for the grade, showing a better attitude in first-time cheekpices and probably benefiting from being isolated out wide from halfway; in touch, upsides briefly circuit out, untidy ninth, pushed along 3 out, challenged approaching last, lugged right, edged ahead late on."
James Bowen spoke to Racing TV after the race:
Syndicate Manager Tom Palin: "We love it when a plan comes together. A fantastic team effort, and huge thanks to his owners, who allowed me to travel him up North several times this season, and also followed the horse all the way to Musselburgh to see him and run and win such a big pot of prize money. I thought James gave him a brilliant, and very smart ride. He didn't really focus at Doncaster last time out, but he certainly turned up on Friday. His jumping was very good, and he dug deep in the closing stages. He really was Fierce by name, Fierce by nature. Well done everyone, an all-round brilliant result."
Find the official photo gallery here: https://www.grossick.co.uk/p/80532khg/C245194404/musselburgh