THE Newtownabbey-based agency Kevin Ross Bloodstock received special mention on Racing TV last Saturday following the impressive victory in Sandown’s Grade 1 Unibet Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle of the Harry Fry-trained, Gary Stevens-owned Metier.
The five-year-old Mastercraftsman gelding, who was winning for the third time in three starts over timber for his present connections, was previously trained in Co Tipperary by Andy Slattery for whom he won an extended nine-furlong Gowran Park maiden in August 2019.
At the end of that season, the bay, then still a colt, was consigned to Tattersalls’ Autumn Horses in Training sale in Newmarket where he was knocked down to Kevin Ross Bloodstock for 150,000 gns.
Metier was off for 369 days before winning a novices’ hurdle at Newton Abbot in late October last year and followed up that victory when landing a conditions race at Ascot roughly three weeks later.
An excellent 2020 for the agency concluded with many of their purchases winning throughout December, while Metier was just one of their buys who got 2021 off to a good start.
Harold Kirk was kept busy updating his Twitter account over the Christmas and New Year period with clips of the many winners he purchased for the Willie Mullins yard including Franco De Port, Chacun Poir Soi, Appreciate It, Sharjah and Monkfish – all Grade 1 winners at Leopardstown.
Other tweets celebrated the Tramore success of Al Boum Photo, before his hat-trick bid in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and that, after an 875-day break, of Koshari at Cork.
NORTHERN trainers are among those looking forward as racing resumed at Dundalk Stadium where Hollywoodbets, the South African-based horse racing and sports betting operator, is extending its sponsorship to the end of March.
Included in this sponsorship will be the naming rights for races during the period, as well as for the meeting at the Co Louth track on Friday, March 5th. That evening, the main race on the card will be the Listed Patton Stakes won last year by the Joseph O’Brien-trained Crossfirehurricane.
On Monday evening, when all but one of the races are for four-year-olds and upwards, Hollywoodbets are sponsoring the six-furlong maiden which has attracted 14 entries including the James Lambe-trained Wishbone. Longtime local supporter, the Crowne Plaza Hotel Dundalk, sponsors the two-mile handicap where among the 33 entries are Glenbank King (Lee Smyth), Magic Sea (Sarah Dawson) and Tham Luang (Liam Lennon).
An Andy Oliver-trained newcomer, The Highway Rat, a home-bred Dandy Man colt, is one of 18 entries in the seven-furlong maiden for three-year-olds, while there are plenty of northern-trained horses in the handicaps over a mile and a half and a mile which open and close the card.
Having attracted entries of 63 and 81 respectively, these look like being divided.
THERE was a first success in the five-furlong maiden at Southwell on Friday for the Max Irvine-bred Silent Queen who had only once been out of the first three in five previous starts.
Now trained by George Boughey and ridden by Ben Curtis, the three-year-old Gutaifan filly is out of the Seeking The Gold mare Gold Hush whose previous two winners were headed by Elhaame (by Acclamation) who won seven times between Britain and the United Arab Emirates. This is the family of Lammtarra, Kammtarra, Saytarra, etc.