Clodovils Certain Lad wins Listed Zabeel Turf

17 Jan 2020

Off towards the rear of the field, Certain Lad took cover under Ben Curtis on the rail, with Simsir directly to his outside down the backstretch and Dream Castle one path further out and just off them. Certain Lad was put to a drive by Curtis upon straightening and gradually ground down the front-running Godolphin pair Desert Fire and Art Du Val. He hit the lead with a furlong to run and was three-quarters of a length to the good of the rallying Simsir at the line, equalling the track record in the process.

 

“He’s improving with every run,” said Curtis, who was in town for one day to partner Certain Lad. “It’s unbelievable. The way he travelled today was even better. He does everything a horse would do to get himself beat, but he keeps winning. In the prelims he gets very warm and is notorious for it. He gets hot and sweaty, but it doesn’t seem to bother him in the race. He ran a bit fresh and keen the first two furlongs, but once he got into a rhythm, I was delighted. He picked them up well and kept going all the way to the line. He ran a good race and the time backed up.”

 

Trainer Mick Channon added, “He has always been a good horse, he is in good form and we had the nerve to go on and it worked out. We’ve always thought a lot of him. He won a Listed race as a 2-year-old and was consistent last year. It’s hard to place these horses, but we knew it would be competitive tonight. You never know going against Godolphin. We’ve always been competitive and never slow at having a crack. That’s why we have race horses. We’ll have a go at the best if we can and go onto the next race at Meydan." Certain Lad is out of Galileo mare Chelsey Jayne, who was herself unplaced but is out of Gr.2 Futurity Stakes winner Lady Lahar and a sister to four Stakes horses including Gr.2 Prix Du Pin winner and Gr.1 placed Jallota and Listed winner Classic Legend. Congratulations to breeder Barry Walters and to owner Chris Hirst.

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