Sunday, 24 July 2011

Hoof It Wins


Hoof It, owned by top golf agent Chubby Chandler and Lee Westwood, landed a gamble in the Sky Bet Dash at York to stake a strong claim for next Saturday's Stewards' Cup at Glorious Goodwood.

The Mick Easterby-trained 3-1 favourite powered to the front on the far side in the competitive handicap, putting the race to bed in the final furlong under a strong drive from Kieren Fallon.

Tajneed was three-quarters of a length back in second with Ginger Ted third and Fathsta fourth.

Chandler also looks after last weekend's British Open champion Darren Clarke, as well as Rory McIlroy, and said: "Not quite as good as Sunday, but not far off! The idea is the Stewards' Cup now. He's a great horse and Kieren likes him.


"Lee is in the gym today, he's going to America next week and he didn't want to disrupt his routine. This is a great horse. My mate told me to sell it last year, but I said what's the point? We only do it for a bit of fun and we'd probably never find a horse as good as Hoof It.

"I just want to know why he doesn't run more often - I love it! You get quite a buzz when your horse is favourite and there's 40,000 people cheering it on. Me and Lee like to think we know what we're talking about when it comes to racing, but we don't really.


Fallon said: "I rode a bad race and he got me out of trouble. I went to the wrong side and he did well. I probably would have gone sooner if I could have done. When he gets there he idles a little bit, so the way the race was run was a blessing in disguise really.

"He probably had a harder race than I wanted to give him. The Stewards' Cup is only a week away, it depends how he comes out of this race. It wasn't ideal. He's still a big baby and I don't think you will see the best of this horse until next year."

Easterby said: "He's a hell of a horse. Chubby first got into racing when we tipped him a horse in a selling hurdle at Wetherby a few years ago. I told him I wouldn't mind training one in his colours and here we are.

"He'll go to Goodwood next week, and then the race I'd like to run him is the Portland at Doncaster. It's over five and a half furlongs and that would suit him down to the ground."