The latest on Bounty

John and Alan were thrilled with Wavertree Bounty's run at Newmarket on Friday Evening and report that she has come out of the race "bouncing and has eaten up well". Alan said after the race that he loves it when horses try for him and that she certainly did that.

Knowing that she was approx. 30lbs wrong at the weights with her current rating of 48, she was there primarily for experience and with a starting price of 100/1 she was certainly not expected to be able to feature in such a quality field of beautifully bred horses most of whom were colts.

She broke well but then got into a bit of a fight with Alan as he took a pull and asked her to settle. He attempted to get her some cover but In the early stages she continued to pull and throw her head around and refused to settle. With no opportunity to tuck her in Alan reluctantly had to conceed that they would continue on the wide outside and with the fight over Bounty began to settle and also started to creep nearer to the front. She was travelling well in fourth place and made it to third by the 3 pole and then to the amazement of all of her supporters was in second place by the 2 pole. Then when they hit the rising ground as soon as Tommo said "here comes Wavertree Bounty" she started to tire and began to fade approaching the furlong pole. Alan waved his whip but didn't hit her and when he knew her chances were gone she was eased down and beaten by 11 lengths.

Over 1m 2f for the first time she finished in a not disgraced 9th place beating a very coltish Sheklaan (4/1), a Hamdan Al Maktoum Kingmambo colt out of oaks winner Eswarah who Alan reported hearing snorting at Bounty throught the race.

Whilst checking on how she had come out of the race it was a surprise to find that she had been declared for the (46-55) 1m 1f race at Lingfield on Monday 21st June at 4.15pm.

The first choice race to divide didn't reach the optimum numbers therefore the 1m 1f race divided and she made it into the second division. John consulted Alan to see if he thought it would be too soon for her and Alan confirmed that he hadn't been hard on her and that if she hadn't been racing she would have done the same on the gallops carrying more weight.

Alan had said after the Newmarket race that he felt Bounty's ideal trip would be between a mile and 1m 1f and that she would win a race when the conditions were right. Whilst it's not ideal to return to the track so soon the opportunity of a race where the class, distance and draw all look good has proved too strong. Alan has also asked for the ride now that the weights have risen by 2lbs enabling him to ride off his minimum weight.

The race is on the turf and the going is currently good to firm with a going stick reading of 8.4 which is slightly softer than Newmarket.

One note of caution has to be that if she were to show any signs of not being 100% for the race she will be withdrawn.