SPARTAN ARROW and Shartash played starring roles in October with Group 3 and Listed wins overseas. Archie and the team have now saddled winners in five countries this year following the former’s success for Hambleton Racing in the Bar One Racing Mercury Stakes on the Polytrack at Dundalk.
His breakthrough success came two weeks after Wathnan Racing’s Shartash returned from a three-month break to take the Grosser Sparkassen Familien-Cup over seven furlongs on soft ground at Dusseldorf.
Hollie Doyle was registering her first career win at Dundalk when Spartan Arrow overcame a wide draw to beat a quality field including fellow British raider West Acre on 24th October. The five-year-old will now be aimed at valuable targets in the Middle East in the new year.
Shartash also emerged from a difficult starting position to get the better of a lengthy tussle with home raider Pershing in Germany and ran well again in a similar race at Munich three weeks later, finishing fourth under Hollie from another wide draw.
Wathnan Racing’s two-year-old filly Shine On Me gained reward for a string of respectable efforts in stakes races when she justified favouritism in a five-furlong fillies’ maiden at Wolverhampton at the end of the month. James Doyle kept things simple on the daughter of Havana Grey who had finished third in Group 3 company and second in a Listed race in France since her close up sixth in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.
There was further success for Hambleton Racing when Hollie guided Coronado King to a winning stable debut in a six-furlong maiden at Wolverhampton on 28th October. Another bargain purchase by Tom Biggs of Blandford Bloodstock, the former Godolphin gelding was making his first start in 16 months.
Meanwhile, stable stalwart Throne Hall was in no mood to be outdone, winning an amateur riders’ handicap at Bath on 20th October for our own Brodie Hampson. He made all over a marathon trip in a first-time tongue tie to win for the fifth time under Brodie.
The month got off to a winning start when Saain’s two-year-old Campenaerts won for the second time, justifying favouritism in a five-furlong Catterick nursery for Hollie. His half-length verdict supplemented his breakthrough win in a Wolverhampton handicap in the summer.
By Simon Mapletoft
