Will Pettis and Charlie Price vie for 2018 top jockey title
28 September 2018, Lingfield Park, UK ~ Tuesday 25 September 2018, saw a return to Lingfield Park for the Rossdales Veterinary Surgeons Amateur Riders Handicap Stakes for horses rated up to 85 over one mile four furlongs.
Things did not go according to plan at Lingfield Park. The Collington-trained Thamaraat under Will Pettis broke slowly from the stalls and her cause was not aided when stable companion Makhaater ridden by Barry Adams dived right-handed into her path. She found herself with just the James Harding ridden Naishaan behind her passing the stands first time around where she received a reminder; this clearly wasn’t Plan A.
The notoriously keen Eqleem under Mike Palmer cut out the early running until stable companion Tatbeeq under jockey Joanna Mason picked up the baton, closely followed by race favourite Al Monther supporting first time visors and ridden by Charlie Price. Racing down the back straight Thamaraat was trapped out wide and had to be cajoled into a challenging position, entering the long run around the home bend Furry had eased to within a half length of Tatbeeq on the front end, both horses still traveling well. Tatbeeq continued to give generously at the head of affairs, Furry under D Turner was floundering while Simon Walker was guiding Delishess into position. All the while Thamaraat was responding to pressure, gaining momentum and took up the running as they straightened for home.
Thamaraat (Munjiz x Aljawza) clearly relished the step back up in trip and passed the line ridden out with 3¾ lengths to spare over the gallant Tatbeeq, finishing 3½ in front of stable companion Delishess appearing none the worse for the biting incident, and Makhaater staying on in fourth place, having won over fourteen furlongs last time he possibly found this trip on the sharp side.
Full Result:
[pdf-embedder url=”https://horsereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/LingfieldResult-8.pdf”]
Both leading ARO trainers Phil Collington and James Owen were well represented, each with four horses entered at Lingfield, until Munawwar was scratched for Collington. The race did not lack for drama as the Beverley Deutrom trained Furry, was undeniably guilty of some rather ungentlemanly conduct towards Delishess. In football he would have been given a straight red card.
With just one race left in the 2018 season Will Pettis may have timed it to perfection in the Jockeys title race, only Charlie Price stands between him and victory. The race deciding who will be crowned Champion Jockey goes all the way down to the last race of the season at Wolverhampton on 6 October. Pettis has won on both his last two rides – Saleemah at Wolverhampton on Saturday night, 22 September, and Thamaraat at Lingfield on Tuesday, 25 September.
Our thanks go to world-renowned veterinary practice Rossdales for their kind sponsorship. Rossdales was represented by Jack Day and James Evans who were on hand to present the winning trophies, a fitting winner as Jack does a lot of work for Phil Collington. ARO would also like to thank George Hill and his excellent team at Lingfield Park Racecourse for being so helpful and accommodating us at such short notice.
~ARO supplied report with edits