Item
Steve's single pick finished top in a very close competition.
Item's season started at York in May in the Group 2 Dante over 1m 2.5f The Andrew Balding trained horse was piloted to a two and three quarter length win by Colin Keane at 11/2 giving Steve 53.4 points and was well-fancied for the Derby.
That race didn't go to plan with Item not getting home over the extra distance on soft ground and ultimately finished ninth.
It was back to York in July for the Group 2 York Stakes over the extended mile and a quarter. Rob Hornby took the ride this time and the horse stayed on well to deliver a two and three quarter length win, at 3/1 this time, to land Steve 48 more points.
Item was stepped up to Group 1 company in August and returned to York for the Juddmonte over the same trip as the previous two wins. Colin Keane was back in the saddle with the horse a 10/1 shot. A fantastic battle with Almaqam went to the last stride with the Juddmonte-owned horse coming out on top and bagging Steve a massive 102.2 points.
The season finished with defeat in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown but the 203.6 point total proved enough to take our Horse of the Season honours.
The top three:
203.6 - Item (53.4 + 48 + 102.2)
194.3 - Notable Speech (81 + 56.5 + 56.8)
191.5 - Ombudsman (32.8 + 79.2 + 79.5)
No comments:
Post a Comment