BREATH OF FRESH AIR
WIND surgery was the key to a coup at Lingfield on Saturday.
Robert Eddery knew he had a decent two-year-old in Fiery Breath last year but was unable to get the best out of him.
The colt had looked useful on the gallops but was beaten between 10 and 12 lengths at Windsor, York and Newmarket.
A wind operation, though, made enough difference for Fiery Breath to be backed from 9-1 on Friday in to 6-4 at the off.
He looked the winner coming to the last furlong, so well was he travelling, but having ® got to the front his supporters were glad the post came when it did. He only had a nose to spare when he and Agent Error hit the line.
“Fiery Breath had been pleasing me at home since he’d had a tie forward,” said Eddery. “That’s relatively minor wind surgery, but we thought it was stopping him in his races.
“He likes to come at something and he got there a furlong out. I’d have no trouble taking him back to six furlongs from seven. Did I back him? Well, he was 9-1 last night . . . ”
Owner Edwin Phillips and his wife usually have three or four horses with Robert, having previously had horses with his brother, Pat.
“The best we had was Hearts Of Fire,” said Phillips. “He picked up £175,000 when he won the Group One Gran Criterium at San Siro in Italy.
“In 2009 the prizemoney there was terrific. Sadly it has changed and the race is worth £75,000 now. He had been on the go all season, having won the Brocklesby at Doncaster for Robert and Pat’s brother, Paul.
“Pat bought him for £13,000 as a yearling at the St Leger sales and he was later sold for over half a million to race in Dubai.”