Eddie's Boy Wins The Weatherbys Super Sprint!
Sun 17 Jul 2022
WINNER 80 OF 2022: EDDIE'S BOY, trained by Archie Watson and ridden by Hollie Doyle: The feature £200,000 Class 2 'Weatherbys Super Sprint Stakes' over 5f at Newbury.
You know it's a big race, when the meeting is named after a specific contest. The Weatherbys Super Sprint, for 2 year-olds is a valuable target if you have a young sprinter that is good enough. Look at some of the famous previous winners: LYRIC FANTASY, SUPERSTAR LEO, TIGGY WIGGY and HAPPY ROMANCE. In 1995, BLUE IRIS, the grand dam of Eddie's Boy won the race too!
Drawn on the rail in 21, he waited patiently in the stalls as a few took a while to load. At the off, he broke quickly as the field spread across the track. Always tricky to work out positioning, especially when a couple break away to the far side too. He was always prominent though and as Hollie asked him for an extra effort 2f out, it became clear that he was in fact still in front. We got off our seats, jumped up and down and shouted them home, as he kept on well and went clear to win by 2 and a 1/4 lengths. The biggest winning distance, since Bengali Boys in 2017.
There was a lot of cheering!!
"It's Eddie's Boy clearly down the stands rail!" Watch the full race replay here: https://www.racingtv.com/videos/watch/horse_racing_replays/375747-weatherbys-super-sprint-stakes-2
Here's Hollie talking to Oli Bell for ITV Racing, as they walked back in:
Timeform rated it as a career best 102 performance, saying: "Had everything come together perfectly, ideally drawn, getting a fast start and able to boss inferior rivals, giving another boost to the form of the Windsor Castle, a race which has worked out a fair bit better than anticipated; broke well, led, went with zest, shaken up 2f out, kept on well final 1f, well on top finish; he's a useful sprinter, worth his place in races like the Molecomb and Flying Childers."
Archie was interviewed by Racing TV, after the race, which you can watch here:
Here's the Racing Post story: https://www.racingpost.com/news/race-reports/eddies-boy-walks-away-with-super-sprint-as-revellers-pack-in-for-craig-david/568490 and from The Sporting Life: https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/weatherbys-super-sprint-report-and-replay-eddies-boy-claims-valuable-prize/202252
See the official photo gallery here: https://www.racingfotos.com/
The winners' celebrations seem to be never-ending for our owners at the moment. A double on Monday, a 4-timer on Friday, and now EDDIE'S BOY wins the Super Sprint! We've already passed the total amount of prize money won in 2021 so to be on £1.2 million and counting is amazing!
Syndicate manager Tom says: "WHAT A DAY! Many congratulations to his syndicate. The first thing I checked this morning (after the well being of Eddie's Boy of course - he is fine) is the well being of his owners who had £98,000 reasons to celebrate yesterday! Coming into the race, it looked like the top 2 in the market would be tricky to beat, but thanks to Hollie and Eddie's Boy, it all worked perfectly. I remember standing on the gallops watching him with his owners, before he made his debut and remarked that he looked like he might take them to Royal Ascot and the Super Sprint..!
He is all speed and to come out with a 102 Timeform rating is impressive, when you see that Gubbass, who won the race in 2021 was given an 87+ rating. This opens up plenty of doors for him, so Archie and I will have a discussion. He is in the Group 1 Nunthorpe of course, but there are lots of options. A nice problem to have!
I must thank Nick Craven of the race sponsors Weatherbys, for looking after our owners yesterday. They had a table all day with free flowing food and drinks and had an incredible experience:
Thank you to Archie and his team for their hard work in the heat. His groom took this photo of him in the racecourse stables afterwards, looking rightly very proud of himself with his smart winners rug."