Wishes Granted with a Magical Win!
Thu 12 Mar 2020
MAGICAL WISH (Richard Hannon), takes the feature, Class 2 Bombardier Golden Beer Handicap at Lingfield, ridden by Tom Marquand.
A season opener for Magical Wish after a winter break of 172 days, had him at 8/1 for yesterday's 7f race. He has also been gelded during his 'holiday' and looked a picture in the parade ring. Chatting to Tom Marquand beforehand, tactics were dependant on the pace of the race and whether he could get a good position from the outside stall 7.
He made a good start and although held on the outer for a furlong or so, Tom managed to edge him in towards the head of the field to press the leader. He went on to lead, going easily over 2f out, with the favourite also still on the bridle and looking ready to pounce from the rear. Tom asked him to stretch and he pulled away in good style, with Adam Kirby and Keyser Soze closing fast on the outer, but he kept on well to take the feature and a handy £11,800 prize! He seems to have a penchant for Lingfield, as that's his second course and distance win there.
He was The Racing Post 'Star Performer': "Magical Wish (3.55) landed the feature under a tremendous tactical ride from Tom Marquand."
Tim Palin, his syndicate manager says "That was a great ride by Tom and Magical Wish showed a tenacious attitude, which I was delighted to see. He has put in a career best performance; posting a Timeform 105. He is still only a 4yo and lightly raced, so there are plenty of big festivals handicaps for him, throughout 2020. Well done to his owners, who were rightly very complementary of Tom and their horse in the video we tweeted! Our Richard Hannon string have come out strongly this year, from 12 runners from the yard so far, we have had 3 wins and 4 second places together."
That's 15 winners now this year and a magic grand total of 1,111 winners on the board. Fabulous!