With the sun shining, racegoers were treated to an entertaining eight-race card at Carlisle on the evening of Tuesday 17th August, officially dubbed as ‘Steak Night’.
The food certainly disappoint and neither did the racing, with several catching the eye on the evening. Read the thoughts of Nick Seddon, who we sent north to speak to the winners on the night…
Swoon looks a filly to follow
Although he had two rides on the card, you certainly got the feeling that Cieren Fallon had made the long journey up from Newmarket primarily for the nicely-bred Swoon (2-1), who duly made the trip worthwhile with a rather taking performance to win the MansionBet Proud To Support British Racing Fillies' Novice Stakes over nine furlongs.
The daughter of Frankel arrived here on the back of an impressive victory in a novice contest over three furlongs further at Wolverhampton last month and despite seeming to have a stern test from the 1-2 favourite Tres Speciale coming into proceedings, it was difficult not to be impressed with her three and a quarter length victory for the Sir Michael Stoute team.
Stoute has certainly taken his time so far with the three year old, who was making just her third start here, and Fallon feels there ought to be plenty more to come from the filly yet, who was a pillar-to-post winner.
He said: “That was a very nice performance. We had it nice and easy in-front and coming back three furlongs on the turf I wanted to make sure it was a good gallop. At the four pole I had a little look and I tried to string them along and win it there, she just kept galloping along and I was pleased with it.
“She’s learning as she goes along and is getting a bit sharper and speedier with every run so next year when she strengthens up and knows what she’s doing she’s going to be even better.”
Faye always rides a winner here!
If you’re looking for pointers for your next trip up to Carlisle, you can do a lot worse than keeping an eye on jockey Faye McManoman, who always seems to have a winner up in Cumbria.
Indeed, McManoman was victorious on Ladies Night here at the beginning of the month with the Nigel Tinkler-trained Strangerontheshore and the pair returned to complete a quick double in the mile MansionBet Bestival Beaten By A Head Handicap, courtesy of a sweeping run down the outside.
That’s now four winners from 10 rides at Carlisle so far this season for McManoman, who was delighted with the performance of the 4-1 favourite, who scored by a head.
She said: “She’s got her confidence now and we always knew she had ability, it just took a little bit of time.
“She tries very hard and I’m just very grateful for the ride. I just love it here, I’m very comfortable at this track and I think when you ride at a place with confidence it pays off. I know when to push the button and when is too soon, so hopefully I can keep the strike rate up!”
Motawaazy is on a roll!
The second race on the card was the MansionBet Summer Of Lovely Offers Handicap over six furlongs, in which Motawaazy (11-5 favourite) very much caught the eye for the Michael Dods team.
The five year old is fairly lightly-raced for this age and has been putting in a string of good performances season, twice hitting the frame before arriving here. Ben Curtis was keen to grab the rail on the son of Kingman from his draw in stall five and from that point the pair pretty much had the race in safe keeping, pouring it on from the front and holding on for a one and a quarter length success.
That’s three wins for the year for Motawaazy and Curtis sees no reason why he can’t go in again sooner rather than later. He said: “That was very straightforward, he jumped well from the gates and he likes to make the running so once I got to the front end we were away and gone. Hopefully he can go in again after that.”
Libby shows the benefit of a change of scenery
Sometimes something as simple as a change of scenery can do the world of good for a horse and the switch to Grant Tuer’s operation certainly paid dividends for Libby Ami (5-1 favourite), who returned to winning ways in division one of the MansionBet Bestival Beaten By A Head Handicap.
Having travelled well into proceedings, the three year old was delivered to perfection by Sam James and sealed a one length success just 10 days after joining her new yard in Birkby, North Yorkshire.
That run was Libby Ami’s third try over a mile and Tuer feels that there could be more improvement to come from the filly over further. He said: “We’ve only had this filly for about 10 days, the guys that own her also own another horse I train called Six Strings and they kindly asked me to train this one for them.
“She came from Mr (John) Quinn’s and we haven’t done an awful lot with her yet to be honest so I can’t take too much credit. My initial reaction would be to keep her in as low a grade as possible and probably stick her up a bit further in trip – but I’ll have to analyse the sectional times.”
Come Quick lives up to his name
It proved to be a good evening for jockey Sam James, who rode a 29-1 double on the card, also partnering the Karl Burke-trained Come Quick (4-1) to victory in the opener - the Bestival Season At MansionBet Nursery Handicap over five furlongs.
The two year old son of Es Que Love clearly has plenty of ability but had been rather out of luck on his previous two outings, meeting trouble at Musselburgh last time out. There was no such hardship here however and after breaking well he showed good speed and proved too strong for his nine rivals.
And James feels there could be more to come from him yet. He said: “He was a little unlucky here two starts ago over six furlongs so we dropped him back to five and last time out at Musselburgh we didn’t get any luck when he was drawn wide, so today was what we thought he’d have done one start back really and it was good to get a win.
“I think he just hit the front last time here and he did it a little bit again today, so hopefully there should be a bit of improvement in him.”
