Swedish double nearly a treble

There were some great scenes yesterday in Sweden has our team of three runners at Bro Park’s prestigious fixture yielded a Swedish double and so nearly a treble.

The day couldn’t have started any better as Al Zaraqaan ran away with the H M Drottningens Pris Hurdle in great style under Gavin Sheehan.

The strapping son of Golden Horn seems to be really enjoying his hurdling and jumped notably well throughout the contest before powering clear for a decisive success.

The Drottningens Pris is a prestigious hurdle race with a rich history and royal connection but the King and Queen of Sweden were absent from proceedings this year due to being in London to attend the Queen’s funeral.

Our owners present in Sweden soon had another winner to cheer later in the afternoon as this year’s breeze-up recruit Manitou took out the valuable two-year-old conditions race in impressive fashion.

Settled behind the three-time winner Starlight Song, a €250,000 yearling recruit with a big reputation, Manitou always looked comfortable and was clearly travelling best of all as the field turned into the straight.

From there Hollie pushed the button and Manitou powered away from his rivals, looking every inch a Stakes class horse in the making as he came home a wide-margin winner from his toiling rivals and complete our Swedish double, which so nearly became a treble in the day’s feature race, the Group 3 Stockholm Cup.

Our globetrotting star performer Outbox may be nearly eight years old but the old boy was produced a great run under a fantastic ride from Hollie, making most of the running after showing good early speed, only to be collared late on by the local hero Hard One To Please.

Just a nose separated the two at the line, preventing Outbox from landing another Stakes race for his horse racing syndicate.

Nevertheless, with two impressive winners and a Group 3 second, this was another very successful and memorable day for our owners, with some excellent race placement once again yielding some brilliant results.

The day proved really exciting for our owners, and it was fascinating to see how Sweden do things on their big days, with a fan fair greeting our horses into the winner’s enclosure and flowers seemingly everywhere!

The whole day was a great experience, and a very successful one two with Manitou in particular looking a name to remember after winning his second consecutive race so impressively.

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