Opposition headed to Newmarket on the back of a comfortable success at Doncaster on his handicap debut. The form of that win had been franked and he started as favourite in a three runner field. It was a step up in class to a 0-95 handicap but he had earnt his place in the field after his impressive display previously. The son of Dalakhani tracked the Mark Johnston trained Juste Pour Nous in the early stages as the leader set modest early fractions. As the pace wound up and the gallop started in earnest Just Pour Nous looked like giving Opposition a race before our gelding hit the incline and galloped away to win by one and three quarter lengths.
Silvestre De Sousa improved his already impressive strike rate for us in the process and he felt that he will be better on a flatter track. We will see how he comes out of this race and then look for another handicap opportunity for the Highclere owned grey. The assessor cannot be too harsh on him given the margin of victory and the small field and we hope he can continue to progress in the months ahead.
Sagaciously headed up to Doncaster to contest a valuable fillies' handicap on Saturday evening. She had run well when fifth in a rough Listed race over one mile and a half at Goodwood and we felt she had travelled well enough to experiment with a drop back in trip to 1m2f. The daughter of Lawman was always travelling well under Richard Kingscote and when he asked her to quicken in the straight she went clear and made a decisive winning move. The second and third were closing at the line but our filly always had enough in reserve to win by three quarters of a length.
This was a fine weight carrying performance as Sagaciously had to carry the burden of ten stone on her back. After this win she will now be entitled to move back into Listed company and will hopefully be able to gain some valuable black type. Now that she has shown she has the speed for one and a quarter miles there are many more options open to her.
Congratulations to the Highclere Melbourne syndicate who own Opposition and The Sagacious Lot who own Sagaciously. Both of the horses look to be exciting prospects for the rest of the season and we hope they can win for you again. Well done to everyone here at La Grange for keeping up the hard work and it continues to reap rewards as we close in on last year's total in mid May.