Our promising Mehmas gelding NUMERO VINGT became the star of Iveagh in February with two wins from two runs to earn an opening rating of 80.
Owned by Georginio Rutter and Windmill House Racing, the three-year-old made his first start since last August’s promising debut at Salisbury when dead-heating in a six-furlong maiden at Salisbury for Luke Morris.
Gelded since that initial outing, Numero Vingt finished strongly to join Michael Attwater’s Unionville on the line at the Essex track and duly followed that up under a penalty at Lingfield two weeks later.
This time he rallied after being headed in a novice event over the same distance, again with Luke in the saddle. He beat Highclere Thoroughbred Racing’s even money favourite Moonshine by a head.
There was also a winning comeback from a lengthy lay-off for Hambleton Racing’s four-year-old Elements Of Fire who justified his short price to land a three-runner seven-furlong novice under Hollie Doyle on 26th February.
Bought by Blandford Bloodstock for 32,000gns at the autumn sales, the 87-rated son of Too Darn Hot was making his debut for Archie on his first start since last April having won the first of his two starts for John and Thady Gosden.
Dyrholaey gained a well-deserved success on the same Chelmsford card as Numero Vingt when he took a Class 4 six-furlong handicap, giving both Archie and Luke a double on the day. The five-year-old was building on a solid second at Wolverhampton just over a week earlier.
Meanwhile, it was good to see last season’s Group 3-winning juvenile Tadej back on the track in the European Road To The Kentucky Derby Conditions Stakes over a mile at Kempton at the end of the month. Though keen in a steadily run race, he ran well to be third behind Godolphin’s short-priced favourite Hidden Force on his first try at the distance.
by Simon Mapletoft
