Horse Racing Review - First Meeting

 This Saturday, Hugues Maigrot Stable along with Jockey Robbie Burke started off the season with a bang! In fact the stable hit with a hatrick whereas Jockey Burke showed his class with two excellent Jockeyship to win with Best Offer and Appeal Board. His win on Best Offer was one of the best rides of the day if not the best. He took a decisive move approaching the 800m when he asked an effort from Best OFfer to close in and this proved to be the winning tactic as the horse cruised in the final straight to finish strongly in front of Match The Market. Robbie scored his opening with Appeal Board in the second race of the first meeting in the sprint. Otherwise, the third win for the stable was by Teamog which has Jockey Daby at his best again with a decisive move, when he launched Teamog from the 800m mark. This was the second win for the pair  Daby /Teamog.

 Eli's Connection broke the ice in the main race to score a nice win with a great finish. As underlined in my preview, Jockey Lacaille did exactly what he was asked to do(where others have failed), that is to hold on Eli's Connection and wait for the final straight to give everything. Eli's Connection kicked on nicely to beat Champ In Action and Young Pretender. Bright Stone and favorite Stateship did not finish in the quartet. Stateship ran an ordinary race after leading in the initial stages. Seems that this horse pulls a lot when in the lead. Should run behind leaders or kept in midfield. Apprentice Yeung Ki was suspended from riding in four meetings following his professional fault that he committed in the same race when he was aboard Champ In Action. He stopped riding for a few metres in the straight line. The explanation given by the Apprentice was that he could not see clearly where the finishing line was and he thought he already crossed the finishing line. All this due to mud that got stuck to his goggles.

 Capitain and Cathay Prince as well were outsiders that broke the ice in the fourth and 8th race respectively. Capitaine ran a cracker with a superb finish with Jockey Segeon. Whilst in the first race he came late to fill in the second spot with Go Spook, Bussunt was on target this time with Cathay Prince. The latter was expected to do well on longer distances rather than the 1365m. The going helping, he showed a nice finish to hold on his first win in front of New Trend.

 Merven Stable opened the new season by scoring with Lone Star Park which was the race's favorite, given that he was the lone front runner of this race. Hoolash's claim of 4Kg helped as well since Go Spook was closing in very strongly. In the seventh race, it was a Compendium which won with French Jockey Lermytte scoring his first win for him in Mauritius as well as for Trainer Kiki Henry this season. Champions Rousset and Dye came close in the 5th meeting to strike a win but could not hold on in the last metres of the race.