Hickton is a horse who needs soft ground and the lack of rain over the early part of the season has meant that he has only ran once this year. That was on the all-weather down at Southall, a month ago. It didn’t work out as he took a bump towards the end and faded from contention.
The heavy rain over the past few days made a return to the turf possible and he was entered in a nine-furlong handicap at Redcar. I thought I’d have a beer or two and so Jen and I took a taxi for the twenty-five-minute journey to the course.
We had an underwhelming buffet in the upstairs Owner’s Restaurant and just about broke even on the pre-Hickton races, courtesy of a single decent priced winner.
There was a fair bit of optimism among the syndicate due to the good to soft ground rating and trainer Declan’s positive assessment of his work on the gallops. Hickton had been backed in to as low as eighteens at one point but went off at twenty-eight to one, which is the price that I’d taken that morning.
The race didn’t go well. He ran strongly from the front again but faded inside the last couple of furlongs, slipping back to finish tenth of the twelve runners.
Zak, the jockey, reckoned that Hickton ran his race the wrong way around, expending far too much energy at the start and then leaving nothing in the tank for the finish. He has an entry for Catterick in three day’s time where the intention will be to drop him out in the back of the field and then let him come from behind to pick his rivals off late on. Let’s hope.
Trail of the Lion King 
Leave a comment