Betty Fontaine is the second smallest in the string but as Bally used to say "It's not the dog in the fight, it's the fight in the dog." She only cost eight hundred Euros, but she's providing the same percentage of return that Youmzain did in terms of investment!
Today under a typical Sam Hitchcott rally, the daughter of Mujadil collected £9,000 in the ironically named EBF "Winker Watson" Fillies' Conditions Stakes. A little outpaced early on, a gap yawned open at the furlong marker and Little Betty stormed home to win by a neck in the colours of Billy Parrish to delight Mick in the car returning home from Salisbury.
"This filly is a smasher and to be honest she's still improving and might even be growing a little. She takes everything in her stride and who can say what she will go on to achieve. Black type must be a target from here."
BOX 41's Shamrocked took the second division of the seven furlong maiden at Salisbury almost in spite of himself. Mick was on hand to witness the son of Rock of Gibraltar's debut where he resembled a bag of mixed lettuce. He was that green.
A little fractious in the preliminaries he still proved too good and won by two length without much of an idea what happened as Mick agrees.
"That was a strange race because they didn't go hard enough for him and Hugh said he was keen for the first furlong or so and then decided to send him on at the two pole because things weren't happening quick enough. Mentally he'll improve massively for this and Hugh had to give him a couple of reminders when he pricked his ears on hearing the crowd.
"He's an out and out galloper and a very popular choice in the Staff's Five to Follow competition which will tell you what we think of him at home. The sky could well be the limit, but we probably won't throw him in anything too ambitious just yet. A conditions race would be the most sensible option in order to educate him a bit. He's decent."