Newpark Rio

Newpark Rio made a really nice debut over five furlongs at Navan on Sunday. Weak in the market and drawn widest of all, he saw plenty of daylight all the way up the home straight. He was keen enough in the early stages under Rory Cleary, but he still showed a nice turn of foot two and a half furlongs out to go from two lengths down to a neck up. He was still in front until well inside the final furlong, when the testing conditions and the uphill finish seemed to find him out. He was just a neck down with 100 yards to run, but he faded markedly inside the final 50 yards to go down by a short head and two lengths to the well-backed Wealdmore Wave and Red Rebellion.

This was, nevertheless, a fine performance from Emmanuel Hughes's colt. His stable companion Pilgrim Dancer improved nicely from his racecourse debut to land a maiden at Naas a week previously, and there should be improvement forthcoming from Newpark Rio as well. He is by Captain Rio out of a Foxhound mare, he is all speed and he should be seen to better effect on an easier track. His sire is by Pivotal and handled soft ground well himself, but Newpark Rio's action suggests that he will be better on better ground. He will improve for this experience anyway, and he should be worth following.

26th April 2009

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