RACE REPORT
By
Claire Taylor
RECORD
BREAKING 14TH WIN FOR SANJI AT HUNTINGDON
Stuart Shefras’
handsome stallion, Sanji, set a new record for the number of wins
by a pure bred Arabian when he won the Godmanchester Open Handicap
run over 6 furlongs. Enjoying his fourteenth win with the Arab
Horse Society the 12-year-old, carrying top weight of 11 stone,
made the running under Phil Collington to stay ahead of Fayre
Abi. Stuart, who has been working tirelessly on organising the
race meeting at Stratford on 17th August, was obviously
delighted with Sanji’s performance, said ‘This makes it all worthwhile’.
Sanji’s win gave jockey Phil a treble on the day and a double
for champion trainer Jennie Candlish.
Sanji was
featured in the May issue of Arabian Link.
The first
race, an Open Maiden, kindly sponsored by Mr R Trott of Set Hire,
gave Jennie and Phil their first win of the day as WFA Leopard
made his racecourse debut a winning one. As it was his first time
out Phil sensibly gave the 4-year-old colt time to settle in the
race by jumping off at the back and letting the others make the
running. Nicholas Bell set off to make every post the winning
post on his own Kahrabaiya and went on again from the bend, by
this time WFA Leopard was getting into the race and ran on nicely
to win by 1 length.
Phil Collington’s
other winner came on a spare ride for Tony Jennings in the Peter
McCormack Memorial Stakes. Doraman took up the running about a
furlong out and ran on to a 2 length win over Island Benedict.
Owner/trainer Tony was thrilled to have another win with ‘Fred’,
whose last win had also been at Huntingdon in 2000, the shorter
trip in the race and in his journey down from Yorkshire in ‘The
Bluebird’ horse box seemed to suit and everything came right on
the day.
The two Anglo/Part
Bred races saw previous winners come out on top again. Hardtoback
made a return to winning form for owner/trainer Jenny Peyton,
jockey Rob Woollard reported that the placed horses had set off
quite quickly and he was content to follow until the final furlong
when ‘Harry’ picked up nicely for him. Sugar Dandy won again for
owner/trainer Caroline Green; he has run at every meeting so far
this season and has been first or second each time, a credit to
connections.
The last two
races provided a double for leading jockey Patrick Murphy. In
The Jolly Butchers Stakes Akrotiri was held up until about 2 furlongs
out and then pushed on to win from Majestic Omar for owner/trainer
Nicky Van Dijk, while in the finale Anne Unwin’s Egypt followed
up her win here in June showing determination when battling back
to finish a short head the better of Island Rover and owner/jockey
Sam Morris.
