Librisa Breeze winning at Ascot
LIBRISA BREEZE showed an astonishing turn of foot on Saturday to win the Totescoop6 Challenge Cup at Ascot worth over £100,000 to the winner and in doing so ended an eight-week drought without a winner and moved Dean off the Trainers’ cold list!
The last winner had been Kadrizzi at the Shergar Cup Meeting on August 6th and it had been 52 runs since that last success. In fact, the previous week, Dean had no runners at all but it’s all about holding one’s nerve, something jockey Robert Winston had to do with a furlong to go in the valuable seven furlong handicap as he faced a wall of horses a furlong out with nowhere to go.
Robert showed nerves of steel, bided his time and when the gaps opened, the 4yo grey son of Mount Nelson displayed an electric change of gear to beat Firmament by half a length going away.
Dean Ivory – another record year
The win took the yard to £580,000 in prize money, so congratulations to Dean and the staff for setting another record season for the fourth year in succession. Librisa Breeze, a dual winner at Ascot this season and runner-up in the Royal Hunt Cup will return to his favourite track on Champions Day and will either run in the Group One Champions’ Sprint over 6f or the Balmoral Handicap over a mile.
Last week saw six runners in total and yesterday saw a rare bumper runner for the stable when Treble Strike made his racing debut at Huntingdon. He finished a very creditable fourth, beaten just a length and the 3yo son of Hat Trick looks to have a future.
Hopefully, the yard has turned the corner and while Harlequin Striker will do well to win the 4.50 at Windsor today under top weight, the course and distance winner has an each-way squeak at 16/1 under Robert Winston. The favourite, Tiercel looks the main danger and Roger Varian’s runner could be hard to beat.
