Thursday 21 July 2011

James Givens: Stormy Whatever

Stormy Whatever opened his account at the second time of asking in the opening British Stallion Studs Supporting British Racing EBF Maiden Stakes (Catterick, yesterday).

The fact he was Lincolnshire handler James Given's only runner on the card was a tip in itself and following an encouraging debut third over course and distance three weeks ago, he was strongly backed into 11-4 favouritism.


While many of his rivals toiled on the rain-softened terrain, Stormy Whatever was always handily placed in the hands of Frederik Tylicki and kicked clear in the last of the six furlongs to score by three and three-quarter lengths from Blue Shoes.


"He's a lovely horse and he loved the ground," said Given.


"I think he would still have run well on better ground, but the rain has definitely helped him.


"He had the experience of running round here so we knew he'd handle the track and he was ideally drawn in stall one.


"He's my first two-year-old winner of the year but we haven't had too many runners.


"We'll see what the handicapper does before making plans."