A Sunday double at Ripon and reasons to cheer in Rome

Mon 21 May 2018

You could say we are on a roll at the moment here at MPR!

Since Friday we have had 12 runners:
5 winners, two 2nd, three 3rd and two unplaced, also adding £75,000 to the prize money pot, which is now over £250k for the year and our winners total is 24.

You may have read our Saturday review in yesterday's news story. On Sunday, we had a double at Ripon and both winners were ridden by Silvestre De Sousa, who was on fire, having a four-timer on the card.

Our afternoon of four runners began nicely with 3 year old INDOMENEO winning. He certainly is a gutsy horse, prevailing under an 'SDS special' ride for RICHARD FAHEY. This was his fifth career win, which is just superb.

We then watched TIGRE DU TERRE demolish the field over 9 furlongs, not having to work terribly hard and winning by 10 lengths. He was so full of running, that he unceremoniously left SDS on the turf after the winning line and headed out for a jaunt off piste. The video of him having a fine old time trotting off into the car park was shared on At The Races and it even made Sky News this morning. It could have been a very nasty incident, but for a very astute gateman who stopped him in his tracks. We are very grateful to him and have contacted the racecourse to try and track him down so we can repay him for catching Tigre.

Thankfully he was fine and made it back to the winners enclosure for a drink. He is now back at home at RICHARD HANNON'S yard, where Richard told us this morning, that he could well be a Royal Ascot horse.

Well done to both sets of owners on the superb wins!

Tim, Tom and many owners made the trip over to Capannelle racecourse in Rome for Italy's premier race day, some making a weekend of it. Our two runners were both ridden by Frankie Dettori and produced a lovely 4th place for the MARCO BOTTI trained DARK ACCLAIM in Italy's richest race, the Group 2 Derby Italiano, winning £33,000 in the process. NAADIRR, for KEVIN RYAN, placed a great 3rd in the Group 3 6f sprint, the Premio Tudini, which means that during his career he has won or been placed 7 times in Group and Listed company.

A fun time was had by all (we have added a few photos in the gallery).