Lucky Like

Lucky Like turned the usually competitive valuable listed Two-Year-Old Trophy at Redcar on Saturday into something of a rout. He raced fairly freely through the early stages but, once he moved to his left and took it up just outside the furlong pole, and Franny Norton gave him a kick in the belly, he showed a remarkable turn of foot to come clear of his field, and win, eased down, by four lengths. This race may have lacked quality for its value, the withdrawal of Pastoral Player didn’t help and Mill Reef runner-up Angel’s Pursuit probably didn’t run his race, but the Eoghan O’Neill-trained winner could not have been more impressive, and the time was good. A winner at Chateaubriant in France in August, the son of Lucky Story had acquitted himself well in the Richmond Stakes at Glorious Goodwood on his only previous run in the UK when he finished fourth behind Dick Turpin, but this performance was head and shoulders above that. It was the first time that he encountered fast ground, which was obviously to his liking, and he can improve further if he learns to settle better.

3rd October 2009