Curtis delighted to keep Kripke on track
KRIPKE got off the mark at the fourth attempt with a decisive victory in the sunbets.co.uk Maiden at Southwell.
David Barron’s three-yearold needed lots of persuasion from jockey Ben Curtis, but he eventually got the job done with a degree of authority.
Oisin Murphy was keen to get into a commanding position aboard 10-11 favourite Dawn Dancer and was in the lead for a long way.
But Kripke’s stamina came into play inside the final two furlongs and he ended up winning by six lengths from the market leader.
Curtis said of the 15-8 chance: “He’s just a big, raw horse. He stays well and that played to his strengths. I thought if I could keep on his [Dawn Dancer’s] coat-tails I knew he’d stay the trip well.”
Murphy had better fortune earlier in the day when Warrior’s Valley (72) made no mistake in the Betway Sprint Handicap.
David Griffiths’ three-year-old was getting weight from the full field and ably cashed in with a two-and-a-quarter-length defeat of Silver Penny. Griffiths told At The Races: “I’ve always thought quite a bit of him, but it’s taken a bit of time for the penny to drop. Hopefully we can go on from that now.”
African Trader enjoyed a much happier return to Southwell in the sunbets.co.uk Handicap.
The five-year-old was infamously disqualified from a race at this track on January 14 after trainer Ivan Furtado saddled the wrong horse.
Stablemate Scribner Creek should have been running in the one-mile handicap but he instead lined up in a seven-furlong handicap that had been pencilled in for African Trader.
The mix-up saw the British Horseracing Authority fine Furtado £2000, but the South Yorkshirebased handler was all smiles back at Southwell as the heavily-backed 6-1 shot got up late in the piece to claim victory by a short head from Unnoticed.
Furtado said: “It’s nice to see the horse win. He’s a nice horse - he doesn’t quicken, he just grinds on. It’s also nice for Gabriele [Malune], who has lost his 7lb claim.”