FLAMING SPEAR, owned by Brighton Chairman Tony Bloom, joins the owner’s Librisa Breeze at Harper Lodge Farm and becomes the fifth horse rated 100 or more in the yard.
By Lope De Vega out of a Zafonic mare, Elshamms, the bay gelding has made the journey down south from Kevin Ryan’s Hambleton yard in North Yorkshire. He won as a juvenile on his debut at York when owned by Qatar Racing and Essafinaat and went through the sales ring at Tattersalls in the autumn of 2015 for 125,000 guineas and under his new owner, has won three times in ten races.
Four career wins for Flaming Spear include two on the all-weather at Newcastle over a mile and seven furlongs while his last win was at York last August when capturing the near £60,000 first prize in the Clipper Logistics Handicap over a mile. Robert Winston has been his regular pilot since April 2016 and he’ll be looking forward to riding both him and Librisa Breeze for Tony Bloom this year.
Winner of the Group One Champions’ Sprint last October, the 6yo Mount Nelson grey gelding will next month be heading to the Middle East for the Dubai World Cup Meeting on Saturday 31st March where he’ll be looking to add to his tally of over £674,000 in prize money.
Harper Lodge Farm has plenty of exciting highly rated horses to look forward to in 2018. As well as Librisa Breeze and Flaming Spear, the stable has three others rated in the hundreds. Eirene is a 100-rated lightly raced 3yo filly who was impressive in winning the Listed St Hughs’s Stakes at Newbury in 2017 while Stake Acclaim, winner of last year’s Shergar Cup Dash, is on105.
Finally, there’s Lancelot Du Lac, winner of the Stewards’ Cup last season under Frankie Dettori, rated 107. Hopefully, there will be more big races to be won by “The Hundred Club” in 2018!