Cheers - 'It's Gin O'Clock!'
Fri 12 Nov 2021
WINNER 97 OF 2021: GIN O'CLOCK, trained by Alice Haynes and ridden by Silvestre De Sousa: 'The EBF Restricted Novice Stakes' over 7f at Chelmsford.
We recently purchased a stake in this colt by Kodi Bear, who made an eye catching debut at York, taking 2nd place over 1 mile. It is always a nervous time when you line up as favourite next time out!
Down to 7 furlongs yesterday and drawn 7 of the 15 runner field, he broke well to dispute the lead. Striding out comfortably, he moved into the lead from about 4 furlongs out. Silvestre asked him to quicken at the 2 pole and he went clear in the home straight, keeping on 'readily' to win by 2 and 3/4 lengths.
"Gin O'Clock shows a really nice turn of foot, to put this race to bed in a matter of strides." Watch the full race replay here: https://www.racingtv.com/videos/watch/horse_racing_replays/363858-ebf-restricted-novice-stakes-4
Alice was at the track and said in her Racing TV interview after the race: "It's good to see him win like that, as he 'bumped into one' on debut! Back to 7 furlongs today and he has seen it out well. He has really sharpened up and he will get further. That's our 19th winner this year, so its been a good season. We have 3 horses for Middleham Park Racing in the yard - it's great to have owners like that. Next year, I will have 25 in the yard.”
We loved this video of family De Sousa cheering him on at home!
See the official photo gallery here.
Timeform rated as a p82 performance, saying: "Switched to all-weather, stood out on form and didn't need to improve to get off the mark in comfortable fashion; led, pushed along home turn, went clear 1f out; remains open to improvement."
Syndicate manager Tim says: "We are thrilled with that. Well done to Alice and her team, she has had a great start to her training career and we are delighted to support her. That was a 1st, 2nd and a 3rd from our three runners yesterday, so plenty for owners to be pleased about. Three more winnners needed now to achieve 100 winners for the year - fingers crossed!"