Marie's Rock wins the Listed feature race at Taunton and remains unbeaten

Tue 31 Dec 2019

MARIE'S ROCK (Nicky Henderson OBE) - THE 2m 1/2f LISTED BYERLEY STUD MARES' NOVICES' HURDLE - Taunton.

You know you have a nice horse in your string when the Racing Post mention The Cheltenham Festival soon after a race win! Marie's Rock was their 'Star performer' at Taunton yesterday: "Marie's Rock (2.25) again won impressively and looks a player for the mares' novice at the festival."

She certainly showed her class, when after the final flight, she pulled 8 lengths away once Nico de Boinville asked her to quicken. The 2nd placed horse was already a Listed race winner and yesterday the form of her win at Haydock on December 4th was franked when the 3rd horse, Ebony Jewel won and The Con Man took 2nd in races back at Haydock. Timeform rated her performance as a 138+ and we certainly have our eyes firmly fixed on the Grade 2 Mares' Novices' Hurdle on the Thursday of The Festival.

Taunton racecourse added some super photos onto Facebook and wrote "Marie's Rock was greeted with rapturous applause from many of her Middleham Park Racing owners, which also led to a depletion of the champagne stocks in the Winning Connections room after the race."  We love that!

*We must thank Mr Henderson for winning with our final runner of the year, as well as having trained our first runner of 2019 to win!

Many congratulations to her owners - who are now dreaming of a certain day at HQ in March.

Watch the Racing TV replay via this page: https://tauntonracecourse.co.uk/racing-home/racing-uk/

Read what Coolmore (who stand her sire Milan), reported here: https://coolmore.com/farms/nationalhunt/news/milan-mare-remains-unbeaten-with-listed-success

See the official photos here: https://www.ppauk.com/event/Taunton-Races-Taunton-UK-30-Dec-2019/

and read the story that The Racing Post published in the gallery.

Media update from 2nd January: https://www.racingtv.com/news/marie-s-rock-cements-festival-plan

Official Rating update 7th January: Marie’s Rock has been awarded a mark of 144 this morning. Including superstars like Verdana Blue and Epatante, this rating makes her the 7th highest rated Mare in Great Britain. She is also the highest rated Novice Filly in the country.