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Funtantes thrilled us with her Group 2 win in the Champagne Stakes as a two-year-old and she is still thrilling us as a rising 7 year old mare
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Story and Photos Courtesy of Graham Potter and www.horseracingonly.com.au
Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the multi-premiership and Group 1 winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO, workload permitting.
Hello once again,
Yes, it is amazing what a difference a week can make!
Last week the blog headline was "Happy to put a tough week behind me' and well, we did that with Solzhenitsyn and Funtantes bringing up a stable double on a big carnival race day and then we backed those results up with another stable double on the Sunday at Caloundra.
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Funtantes has brought her connections an enormous amount of joy ... from her winning debut run as a two-year-old when she broke a 12 year old class record to last Saturdays win.
She thrilled us with her Group 2 win in the Champagne Stakes as a two-year-old and she is still thrilling us as a rising 7 year old mare.
Her group win as a two-year-old has pretty much meant she has carried big weights throughout her career so it made some sense claiming a couple of kilos off with Priscilla's Schmidt's claim.
Priscilla gave us a little gem of a ride and she put Funtantes into the right spot at the right time and when she pressed the 'go' button at the top of the straight, our bonnie mare shot clear for a top win.
Winning on any race day is a thrill but even more so on the big days. Talking about a thrill though, Priscilla had a beaming smile on her face when she came back into scale and why not? It sure is great for the apprentices to win on the big race-days!
Priscilla is sure to have a successful career as a jockey and an even brighter future in the media later on!
Funtantes has come out of the race in great order with her next assignment being the Listed Bright Shadow on Oaks day, the 1st June.
That looks an ideal race for her even though she will get her share of weight and it's a non-claiming race so one of the senior boys will more than likely take over from Priscilla!
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It was an enormous feeling of satisfaction when Solzhenitsyn just out-lasted Transporter to win the Group 3 Lord Mayors Cup.
Satisfaction and a fair bit of relief to be honest as we missed the pay up for the Cup, as did the runner-ups team, so this was a nice consolation prize for the owners of 'The Big Russian'!
The wet tracks he encountered in Sydney culminating in his scratching from the Doncaster and then missing the Cup was another hiccup so the owner's cheque here is sure to make them feel better.
