SATWA ROYAL has had more problems than Ricky Ponting, but, whereas the Australian cricket captain has had precious little to celebrate over the Festive period, our fellow made his belated racecourse debut a winning one when scoring in a photo-finish at Lingfield on Wednesday, making it two wins already for La Grange Stables in 2011.
The gelding celebrated his fourth birthday only five days earlier, and, explaining his absence, Ed said:"He has been unlucky and it has been one hiccup after another, but he is half-brother to Lush Lashes, the 2008 Coronation Stakes winner, and, having finally got started, he can only improve, while I was also very pleased with Ana Emarati, who finished third in the same race. He was much happier here than he had been at Kempton, and the crossed noseband also seemed to help."