Even with seven runners today there were no 'well fancied' horses with favourites chances among any of them but, all bar one runner showed up well and confirmed their capabilities and prospects as future winners.
At Redcar "Belles Angel" was having only her second outing, a filly who has been slow to come to hand, backward both mentally and physically despite her relatively small size. But what she lacks in size and scope, she makes up with a big heart and dogged determination. Today's trip of five furlongs proved a bit inadequate but she finished fifth beaten five lengths, showing us enough ability to confirm she can win this Summer.
"Hilary J" made a belated racecourse debut today and showed plenty of promise to finish third depite showing signs of being green. The winner and second horses are decent sorts so we were very happy with our girl.
"Letbygonesbeicons" also finished a respectable third, staying on well over a new trip of seven furlongs. He has been vastly overrated by the handicapper after winning as a two year old and once he is back on a fair and reasonable mark he will win again.
"Harmonic Wave" and "Searanger"- both juvenile winners also suffer from handicppers handicapping, but again both can win races when re-assesed but despite this, they both ran healthy races with Harmonic Wave suffering some traffic issues during the race.
Over at Cartmel our one and only hurdler "Toboggan's Gift" ran a blinder to finish second - another few yards and she would have got her head in front.
"Miss Machiato" was the only horse not to give us the indication we need to confirm a win. She is not in love with racing and has decided she would like to follow other avenues. It is a shame because while she has never been straight forward we have neverthless given her every opportunity and all the time she has needed to grow and mature. Her owner has been incredibly patient but a life outside racing beckons and she is now happily munching grass in the paddock with Alicia the pony.
Schooling over hurdles from Ann Duffield on Vimeo.