“Woody” about to load
“WOODY”, the unnamed Solario Racing two-year-old colt by Garswood went down to Lingfield Park yesterday for a Barrier Trial…and he was third!
Dean Ivory always sends his horses for a racecourse gallop or two, usually at Kempton but sometimes at Newmarket, before they race. However, Lingfield Park now runs Barrier Trials which allow young unraced or inexperienced horses to have both a racecourse gallop and gain stalls experience. The idea has come from Australia (where they call stalls barriers) and has been adopted by “horse whisperer” and stalls guru, Gary Witheford. Rather than just have a racecourse gallop with two or three horses from the one yard, a Barrier Trial comprises around 10 horses from different stables.
“Woody” (far side) jumps out
So yesterday morning, “Woody” went down to the Surrey course accompanied by another unraced 2yo from the yard, Billy Button. The idea is to replicate the raceday experience without the stress. So, both horses were tacked up in the racecourse stables and then cantered down to the starting stalls at the 6f pole.
“Woody” was loaded up into stall ten of ten with his regular lad, Luke Bacon aboard and once all ten horses were in place, they jumped out and went about a furlong before being pulled up and then returning to the stalls to be loaded again.
“Woody” (far side) at the furlong pole
At the first loading, “Woody” was quite green but second time around, he seemed to have learned from the experience. However, being drawn wide, Luke decided to ease him onto the rail and during the first half of the “race”, he was in eighth place, moving nicely and getting into a rhythm.
During the “race”, he made steady progress and Luke moved him off the rail. At the furlong pole, he was on the heels of the main pack and at the line, he was third and going away at the line. Luke said that nothing was travelling better than him at the finish.
Of course, we don’t know how good the opposition was but there were horses from Eve Johnson Houghton and Archie Watson, both of whom can ready a two-year-old. Dean tends to be quieter with his juveniles and they improve with experience. So, this was a very encouraging Barrier Trial, particularly with such a wide draw!
It will not be long before the colt makes his proper racecourse debut but in the meantime, he needs to be named…which will happen next Monday!
