Santa Rossa

It was good to see Santa Rossa back on the racecourse at Limerick on Sunday, for the first time in over a year, and she was impressive in winning the two-mile mares’ hurdle. Settled in third place early on by Keith Donoghue behind Bonarc and Gjoumi, she was keen early on, as you would expect given her long absence, but she travelled well through her race and she made good ground as they rounded the home turn. She moved up nicely on the outside of Gjoumi when they straightened up for home, she jumped to the front over the second last flight, and she picked up smartly from there, jumped the last well and stretched away to win by six and a half lengths in the end.

Dermot McLoughlin’s filly was a top-class bumper horse, she won the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival in 2019, and she finished third in the Grade 2 bumper at Aintree, and she finished fifth behind Colreevy in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Punchestown. She only raced once in the 2019/20 season, but she won her maiden hurdle on her return from a break at Navan in March last year. Sunday’s run was her first run since then, she has obviously had her issues – her trainer said that she got a kick in the paddock just before Aintree last year – but hopefully Dermot McLoughlin can get a good run with her now, because she obviously had bundles of talent. Her rider said that he found it difficult to pull her up after Sunday’s race. She is not overly flashy at home reportedly, and her trainer said that she would come on appreciably for this run. She will be of interest if she goes to one of the spring festivals now. A fast-run two-mile hurdle race run on goodish ground could see her to best effect. She was impressive in winning going right-handed here, but her trainer said that he thought she could be even better going left-handed. She is eight, but she has raced just seven times in her life, and there could be a fair bit more to come from her yet.
Limerick, 27^th March 2022