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Successful Easter for the Club

21 April 2017

Easter was an excellent weekend for Club runners, starting with Marseille winning her first race in Club colours at Newcastle on Good Friday. Marseille is the third foal of racing age delivered by Club broodmare Marlinka, who achieved her finest hour last season when Marsha won the Group 1 Prix de l'Abbaye on Arc day at Chantilly.

Marseille was slightly untypical of her older siblings, Marsha and Judicial, in that she was very backward physically as a juvenile. Both Marsha and Judicial won races as two-year-olds, but Marseille always looked as though plenty of patience was needed for her to fulfil her potential. She was sent to Julie Camacho as a yearling and was taken very steadily last season, only running twice for educational purposes at the end of the season. She finished second in her final race of the season, and went one better in a £15,000 maiden contest on Good Friday. Since then, Marseille has been allotted a very workable handicap mark, so it is hoped she can progress further this season and enhance her family's excellent sprinting tradition.

We have received promising training reports from James Fanshawe about her juvenile half-brother, Magistrate, who could be a different sort as he is by middle-distance influence, Cape Cross. It is hoped Magistrate will make the course later this season, and his trainer likes what he has seen so far.

On Easter Saturday, Zest ran in the Listed Snowdrop Stakes at Kempton, and ran a personal best to finish third to some decent fillies. Zest had been disappointing last season, not helped by tending to run so keenly, but she looked much more at home in the strongly-run mile contest at Kempton. She has been raised 10lbs by the handicapper, which will probably persuade James Fanshawe to keep running at Pattern level, hoping Zest can hit the target before long and enhance her pedigree further. Both Soviet Song and Ribbons were also placed in the Snowdrop Stakes, prior to winning at Group 1 level later the same season and, whilst we do not expect to hit the same dizzy heights with Zest, her future looks very promising.

Our final runner of the Easter period was Bardd, who perhaps didn't feel at home on fast ground over the minimum trip of two miles at Plumpton. He finished second at the Sussex track, but could run again this season over a slightly longer trip for the Nicky Henderson stable, who are likely to be crowned champions at Sandown on 29 April after another superb season.