Wars of the Roses Day Update

On this day in 1455 the Wars of the Roses were deemed to have begun, at the Battle of Stale Buns, which, as we all know, is the closing event in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 2. For those looking for a more contemporary reference, on this day in 1987 the first Rugby World Cup began, with New Zealand beating Italy 70-6.

But what of the racing? Since the last update, we have had some unusual things happen. Previously mentioned was LETHAL BLAST’s impending return to racing after four years in retirement. That was prevented when she came into season on the day of the race, so she diverted to Kempton just after Bank Holiday Monday. Drawn inconveniently out in stall twelve of twelve was a bad omen and, alas, the horse inside her decided to rear up in the stalls a split second before the gates opened and badly distracted his neighbours. It is not a coincidence that the last two finishers were stalls twelve and ten, but Lethal Blast would have gained plenty from the run. On the actual bank holiday, SOMKIYR was also on the flat at Kempton and raced with much more enthusiasm than he has been doing over hurdles. Too much enthusiasm probably, as he ran out of steam in the final furlong but he will probably stick to the flat for the time being. For his follow-up we dropped him down to a mile but that did not improve the result. New ground was broken when we had our first runner at Hexham. It’s a long old journey, to say the least, but GOLD CLERMONT ran well until stopping quickly before the second last.

There has been one significant new arrival, with the four year old HELLO MAX picked up at the Goffs sale. He finished third in his only Irish point, which looked a decent race at first impression, although none of the first four have any other runs to their name to add to the evidence. He is by Maxios, sire of Gaelic Warrior and Quilixios, and out of Hello Kitty, which makes him a half-brother to Impact Factor, a grade 2 hurdle runner-up who became a classy handicap chaser for Jessica Harrington. When the runner-up from his race went for £100,000 it was a bit worrying about the implications for Hello Max’s price, but we nabbed him for just over half that in the end – who knew a length and a half was worth £45,000?  A new partnership is being put together for him, with one eighth still available.