Hurdles, Chasing and now a win on the Flat for Oleg!
Mon 09 Mar 2020
OLEG (Paul Nicholls) at Southwell in the 2m 1/2f Female Jockeys Handicap, ridden by Megan Nicholls.
We were delighted to support International Women’s Day yesterday, on a memorable afternoon at Southwell. The track held four Flat and four National Hunt races for female riders to mark the occasion and we sent two runners there. We were thrilled to come away with a winner and a 2nd place!
In the final race of the day, Oleg was returning from a break of 140 days, after having wind surgery and we thought this race was a nice re-introduction for him. Megan had him close up and travelling nicely, although at one point we were on the edge of our seats when he lost his position and got shuffled back. Megan didn't panic and asked him to move forward and he went into third two furlongs out. As the other horses around him by then were off the bridle, Oleg was coasting and galloped on to lead a furlong from the line, just needing to be pushed out to pull clear and win easily by 5 lengths, as you can see here!
Syndicate manager Tom Palin says "He poses his owners a very exciting dilemma, as he will only remain a novice chaser until the end of this coming season. There are plenty of nice races to be won under both codes with him. He's a horse who has been very versatile since he joined us at the start of last year from France. Winning on the level, over hurdles and over fences, being in the first two on all four of his completed starts in our silks. Very well done to his owners and thanks to Paul, Megan and team Ditcheat!"
We were also delighted to see Motawaafeq finish second in the 1m race for Mick Appleby and ridden by Hayley Turner. He really has been consistent in his last few races, finishing in the top three 5 times. He won for us in December and we see another on the horizon! He is giving his new owners plenty of fun along the way.
With 14 winners on the board, yesterday took us over £100,000 of prize money won this year and a grand total of 1,110 winners since we were formed. Long may this continue for our owners!