Foden Scores...at Lingfield
Sun 20 Jun 2021
WINNER 40 OF 2021: FODEN, trained by Richard Hannon and ridden by Thore Hammer Hansen (-3): 'The Follow At The Races On Twitter Restricted Maiden Stakes' over 7f on the turf (pitch) at Lingfield.
Now, before we start here, yes, he is indeed named after the Manchester City and England striker. Twitter has been alive with plenty of puns and related goal scoring comments, which have been great, so we'll get all the footy references over with early on and then substitute them for the horse related ones in this write-up!
Having his second start, after making an eye catching 3rd place debut at Wolverhampton on June 8th, this time he was on the turf, where the going was soft, heavy in places. We weren't too concerned about that, as, being by Garswood, who certainly liked a bit of juice, we thought he would cope with it.
Drawn 9 of 13, he broke steadily and found himself in midfield. Thore gave him a little shake of the reins and he made headway around 2f out. Moving into second, he really hit top gear and made a strong challenge, going on to lead and went well clear inside the final furlong. Thore gave a glance behind as he pulled away from the other runners and then eased him towards the line when he knew how far ahead of the runner up he was - he won in the end by 5 1/2 lengths!
"Foden is going to absolutely hack up." Watch the full race replay here: https://www.attheraces.com/racecard/Lingfield/19-June-2021/1950
Robert Cooper, the Sky Sports Racing track presenter commented after the race: "It's all about winning this game. It doesn't matter what the race, that's what its all about." Quite right Sir Bob! The fact that Foden was our 40th of the year, was linked nicely into the fact that he also took our race prize money earnings to over £400,000 for the year for our owners.
Timeform rewarded him with a 77 rating for the race and say: "Showed improved form to get off the mark in good style switched to turf, knowing more this time and proving much too good for this grade; in touch, pushed along over 2f out, led over 1f out, kept on well to draw clear, had plenty in hand; will go on improving."
Syndicate manager Tim says: "Congratulations to his owners. He did it with authority and very impressively and looks like he has a bright future. Thore says that he is still very green but that the penny began to drop in the final furlong. His classy dam side has stamina in there and so he could be a nice miler to look forward to. I spoke to Richard after the race and he is keen to look at the Group 2 Superlative Stakes on Darley July Cup day at Newmarket for him. It is a race that he has won with Olympic Glory and Estidhkaar and in 2020, it was won by the Craven winner and 2,000 Guineas 2nd Master Of The Seas. We will see how he is after the race but it is a target we have in mind for him. We finished the day with a 1,2,3 from our 3 runners and we are well ahead of the last full year of racing we had in 2019, so all credit to our trainers and jockeys."