Our first runner of the official flat season was a winning one when Fast Tara won in taking fashion in Bellewstown on Thursday. The 3yo daughter of Fast Comapny posted two nice performances last year but she was a class apart on her seasonal bow this year. She carved a much bigger, stronger and fitter filly in the picturesque Bellewstown parade ring which lead to an onslaught on the bookies where her price plummeted from 9/4 to 7/4 fav.
There was much talk in the preliminaries about the Jessica Harrington trained Love Mocha and it looked a straight shootout between the top two in the betting. Both fillies jumped well and Ben was happy to take a toe into the race from the second favourite. It looked like Tara may have been getting outpaced around the home bend but in fact it was her jockey asking her for her effort and boy did she respond. She came alive under Ben’s urgings and surged to the front a furlong from home ultimately hitting the line hard to win with ears pricked by a cosy length and three quarters.
The Johnny Murtagh trained inmate had a big cohort of delighted owners on course to welcome her back into the winners enclosure. That’s our 3rd maiden winner with Murtagh continuing a fine partnership with the stable. Coen was cool as always and gave Fast Tara a wonderful ride to kick his season off in style.
With her maiden tag now shed we can start to dream. Ben was adamant that she wants an ease in the ground, much like all Fast Company’s, so we will have to pick and choose her battles but one thing is for certain she looks like a filly that will be upto competing in premier handicaps and stakes races at the big festivals throughout the season. It was an extra sweet victory for the Tinnakill team as Fast Tara is a homebred out of one of their most exciting young broodmares, Tarasila who is a three parts sister to the Champion Tarnawa. It’s a privilege to have access to such elite bloodlines which have the capabilities to take owners to the winners enclosure at a bargain price.
No Victory for West End but a bright future in store
West End Victory was only making her second racecourse appearance when taking on a competitive field in the listed mares bumper in Fairyhouse on Saturday. She stayed on to be 5th behind the impressive Peter Fahey trained inmate Tiger Bay Queen. She looked to have improved from her debut win but is very much a filly bred for 3m and that is exactly what she wants. She comes from a stellar pedigree and is bound to improve for a hurdle so we look forward to a bright future for the attractive daughter of Westerner.
Trojan on Track to reduce equine injuries
Jack sat down with Stephen O’Dwyer to talk about his exciting startup based on equine biomechanics. TrojanTrack is revolutionising the equine industry by combining biomechanical analysis with cutting-edge deep neural network technology (you’ll have to watch to figure out what that is). Their innovative solution provides quick and accurate analysis of a horse’s movement and performance, all with just a smartphone camera and tripod – eliminating the need for any wearables.
In the above video, Stephen talks about how their technology can help prevent injuries in racehorses, enhance performance, and provide vital insights into a horse’s well-being. It’s a fascinating conversation that highlights the intersection of science and sport.
Time called on Nós
Nós na Gaoithe has been forced into an early retirment after she met with a setback en route to her build up to the Fairyhouse Easter Festival. She was a firm Syndicates.Racing favourite and a filly who meant a lot to me as she was the first horse I bought with Jack for the syndicate almost 3 years ago now.
She was a dual winner for her owners and posted some very good efforts in defeat being slightly unlucky not to achieve black type or to add one / maybe two more wins to her CV. One thing is for certain is that she had the potential to take her form to the next level but in the interest of welfare and fairness her owners decided to retire her to the paddocks.
Credit Pat Healy. Healy Racing Photos.
She represents an exciting addition to anyones broodmare band being a debut bumper winner, a 13 length maiden hurdle victor, half sister to Ratvinden. She’s also a gorgeous physical and was in the money 5 times from 9 starts with a rating of 121. She’ll be sorely missed but we’ll hopefully look forward to racing her progeny in the future.
Newport Bay ready to rock
It looks like our New Bay filly with Kevin Phillpart de Foy could be our first juvenile runner of the season. There is no target picked out yet but as the 6f maidens fast approach she looks good and forward to be able to compete early in the season with a dreamers eye on Royal Ascot.
We added Kevin to the Syndicates.Racing roster for the first time this year and the communication has been excellent. We’re excited to see where this filly can take us and we can dream of the €1.2m Goffs Million in September.
Snowhaven set for seasonal debut
Snowhaven was entered to make her seasonal debut in Cork on Saturday but unfavourable heavy ground scuppered that plan. The Jessica Harrington trained inmate has an entry for Gowran on Thursday which she might yet take up. She is a filly with natural raw ability who will be seen to improve throughout the season.
#BargainBreezer take 3?
If you cast your mind back to this time three years ago (yes the dreaded C word) we set out on a mission to find a bargain breezer off the back of the inaugural Art Of The Mating series. It was a project which took us from a couple of horses to almost 10, a couple of hundred owners to over 500 and it was a massive springboard to launch us to where we are today. A lot done, even more to do.
In every year we’ve bought a breezer we’ve managed to achieve a six figure sale for one of our graduates with the most exciting coming in the shape of last years Gleneagles filly, Queen Maedbh, who looks to be on the Irish Guineas trial for Joseph O’Brien.
The Breeze-up sales are good fun as there is soo much data we can present and use to formulate a plan to buy a #BargainBreezer. We have some interesting ideas in store for this year so if you would like to be involved this year please do let us know here.
#FoalWatch
Tinnakill are now down to their last 10 mares to foal with some exceptional individuals on the ground. The fillies took charge with 27 on the ground at last count vs. 18 colts.
Teeba is an exciting stakes producing mare who had this lovely 52kg Far Above filly during the week. A filly was a great result out of the mare as she’ll have fantastic residual value in years to come.
Expressive welcomed this distinctly marked colt by a sire who I think is massively underrated, Twilight Son. He’s a good, strong 60kg foal from an exciting family.
This Zarak colt out of Centime could be the most exciting addition of the entire season for the stud. Zarak has got off to a wonderful start and has risen to a career high fee of €60,000. Centime is already a proven stakes producing mare who is a half sister to Group 1 winners. The colt foal was described as “as nice a newborn as I’ve seen this year”.
Thank you.
It has been really enjoyable meeting so many of you over the past week and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. I believe we’ve a really, really strong squad of horses this year that will take us into the Winners Enclosure on a few more occasions at least in 2023. Spring has sprung and we look forward to the summer months. Thanks for reading. As always if there’s anything we can do get in touch john@syndicates.racing.