Havana Flower finished ninth in the competitive Maiden Fillies’ Stakes at 4:45pm on Saturday 27th September.
Sent off at 12/1 against nine rivals, Havana Flower broke smartly from stall four but raced far too keenly, making life difficult for jockey Ray Dawson. Once asked to go forward, she showed signs of inexperience, looking green and seemingly uncomfortable with the track. Having expended too much energy early on, she was unable to land a blow in the closing stages.
After the race, jockey Ray Dawson gave us his verdict on the performance:
“She jumped out quick, she was a bit on her nerves and was trying to run away from the horses on the inside. When I got her in behind a few and we quickened up in the dip she got a bit unbalanced. The dip didn’t suit her first time out. A more conventional track with that experience under her belt she should be ok.”
Trainer Roger Varian reported after the race:
“I am sorry everybody, not the start that we wanted but as you can see everything that could have gone wrong did. She broke alertly from the starting gates but gave Ray quite a hard time, she didn’t relax into a professional rhythm. Once she got in behind horses she raced kindly through halfway but when we put a bit of pressure on her to get involved in the race, we met those bumps and humps. She seemed terribly unbalanced and hung out to the right, so she was never really in a position to make progress, go forward and finish with any purpose. We have seen an awful lot more from her at home on the gallops than we saw today. Unfortunately this can happen first time at the races, so we will forgive her today and I think we will see a completely different horse next time.”
This experience will be hugely beneficial for our filly and we look forward to her next run.
Shares are still available in Havana Flower HERE.
