Folkestone’s Spring Family Day kicked off with an egg and spoon race and it would probably be an eggs-ageration to suggest it was the highlight of the afternoon.
However the race was spiced up by course commentator Lee McKenzie’s egg-cellent commentary, which was resplendent with egg-scrutiating puns as the young competitors were egged on by the crowd.
The real racing was almost an anti-climax.
Proceedings kicked off with a four runner 2 year-old maiden sprint. Previous runner Northern Tour was sent off the odds on favourite and duly won, however two of the other runners were noted for opposing reasons. The bad one was Strictly Royal from the Mick Channon stable, blinkered for the first time, always worrying for a debutant, was always behind and looked unreliable.
On the other hand Soul Sista looked incredibly immature in the parade ring, with plenty of room to grow. She ran very green coming out of the stalls, missing the break completely, yet a furlong from home she looked to be the likely winner and is definitely one for the notebook.
In the 6 furlong handicap it seemed as though Kalligal would be an all the way winner but as the runners approached the furlong marker the filly was swamped on all sides with the lead changing hands several times in the final furlong. With any one of Party In The Park, favourite Blue Jack, Our Aquaintance, original favourite Baunagain and We Have A Dream all in with a chance of taking the spoils. In the end it was the dream that was fulfilled with the Willy Muir second string taking the prize by ¾ length from Baunagain, with Our Aquaintance in third and Muir’s favourite only fourth.
The second 6f furlong handicap also looked to be going the way of a pillar to post victory, this time to John Spearing’s Nobilissima, although the finish was not as frenetic as the previous heat the filly was nabbed in the final furlong, going down by 2 lengths to Barry Hills, Bonnie Prince Blue.
It was on to the round course for the afternoons remaining races and seven went to post for the 9 furlong fillies stakes. Once again we had a runner going for an all the way victory only to be done in the final two furlongs. Pharaohs Queen went off the second favourite but her front running exploits may have taken too much out of her as she hung left in the home run. This gave the Amanda Perrett trained favourite Riverscape the chance she needed and which she took with all hoofs. However the race was almost snatched by the best backed horse of the day, Pam Sly’s Valferno, who had been backed from an opening 40/1 all the way down to 8/1. Coming with a blistering late run Valferno just grabbed third from Pharaohs Queen by a head and would probably have won had the race been ten yards longer.
Princelywallywogan may have an unfortunate name, however he went into my notebook at Nottingham last week with an eye catching third at 50/1. Unfortunately such generous odds were not available today, however putting in another great run he did manage to go two better taking the nine furlong handicap chase by a length from Flight Dream and favourite Ruling Reef who needed judge Felix Wheeler to separate them.
The judge had to earn his money in the final 1½ mile apprentice handicap, again to sort out second and third. 20/1 shot Compton Charlie made a right Charlie of the punters to take victory by a length despite hanging badly left in the final furlong under a strong ride from Jack Dene. Joint favourite Street Life ran on strongly to take second place from the 8/1 Berry Hill Lad by a head. The other joint favourite, Top Spec, looked to be in with a chance turning into the home straight but faded badly in the final furlong.