Trail of the Lion King

Ironopolis had the second run of his career in a one mile restricted novice race at Ripon. Isla was away on holiday and so it was just Jen and I that went along to see how he got on. We were able to leave the car in the shade under a tree in the Owners Car Park and got in just in time for the first race.

There was a good turnout with the Club Enclosure sold out and plenty of people taking advantage of being able to take their own beer into the Course Enclosure. A brass band was knocking out the tunes in the bandstand. It made me wish that it was a drinking day.

We watched the first race from the Club Stand. When it was time for Ironopolis to run we could have gone into a a small section reserved for Owners and Trainers, but we had a good enough view from the seats immediately behind that section. There was a dedicated bar for us too, where we caught up with some of the other syndicate members, before heading out to the parade ring for a chat with the trainer and jockey.

The pre-race chat between the syndicate mainly dealt with the horse being backed into 6-4. He drifted to 9-4, but still went off as 2-1 favourite in a nine horse field. There was a consensus that the price was too short, although I could see why he would attract support after a strong finish on his first run and an assessment in the race card that he was likely to improve.

The word from the trainer was that he still doesn’t do much when working at the stables. He didn’t do a lot in this race either and was never in contention, jogging home in sixth place. The jockey reckoned that he didn’t like running around a bend. Others thought that he likely needs softer ground and a less undulating track. Perhaps he needs to be told that lower grade horses usually get their balls chopped off.

We watched the third race from the grandstand, for a different perspective. As we were looking after the dog we called it a day after that one and headed home. Hopefully Ironopolis will be back on a track that suits him before long.

Tags: Ironopolis, Ripon Racecourse

This entry was posted on August 25, 2022 at 7:11 am and is filed under Horseracing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.