Vyrnway Saddlepan lands the spoils at Racetime

Racetime Raceway in Belfast (United Kingdom) staged their fifth meeting of the season last Saturday afternoon with patrons being served up a five race menu of harness racing contests catering for all grades of pacer and trotter.

The sport has traditionally been a stronghold in this area dating back over 70 years and in recent weeks we have seen the progeny of previous champions performing at the track including Armbro Lobell, Klondyke Girl, RB Greystar, Come Closer and Blackwell Monsoon to name but a few. 

In the opening event on the programme Alex Patterson’s Alpha Papa made a winning debut under rules upstaging the hot favourite Castlewood Glensman, who made an uncharacteristic break in stride at the off in this.

Cleverly named after the NATO phonetic alphabet of his owners initials the four year old hails from the dynasty of Armbro Lobell, herself a multiple free-for-all winner and leading from pillar to post the Alpha Papa tripped the timer at 2:05 a respectable time for the grade. Castlewood Glensman recovered well from the earlier break in stride to get within 2 lengths of the winner with Foxfield Tom denying Big Pete for third place, a further length behind. 

Klondyke Girl was another superstar of the early 2000s era winning the famous Musselburgh Pace in Scotland for owner Peter Lyttle amongst other FFAs and classic races that she contested and triumphed in. Her legacy now lives on through her daughter Rio Bravo and the mare justified favouritism in the second race on last Saturday’s card the “mares only” mile.

Content to sit in behind the front-running Waverly Jane for the first circuit Rio Bravo was produced with an electric turn of foot at the ¾ pole which effectively put the race to bed in a matter of strides. Hitting the wire in 2:03.4 there was a yawning eight length back to Fold Mischief who in turn had four lengths to spare over longtime leader Waverly Jane.

Harness Racing fans the length and breadth of both Ireland and the UK will remember Blackwell Monsoon, a multiple classic winning mare for Ciaran Morrison (now training in Canada) and owners the Murdock family from Belfast City.

Now a broodmare, she has already produced Blackwell Ruby which plys her trade successfully stateside for trainer Robert Cleary and it looks like Monsoon has thrown another potential star in the shape of Phils Dragon who lined up in the third race on Saturday and went off the 2/5 odds-on shot in the betting market.

Cruising to what looked like a facile victory the inexperienced juvenile suddenly veered off the track in the home stretch giving driver North Lucas no chance of keeping a straight course. This left the very aptly named Lucky Cam as a most unlikely winner as a shocked Barry Dean glided the veteran campaigner to a 6 length win over Camden Pro.

It was a most unfortunate incident involving Phils Dragon and if his owner can sort out his errant ways he has a very big future and could potentially end up joining his illustrious sibling stateside in the coming months.   

Having not recorded a single sub-2 minute mile in its debut season back in 2020, Racetime Raceway now has 2 of these under its belt in 2021 with the first having been achieved by John Barley back in June.

Although he was in the line-up last Saturday he had to settle for third place this time around as Vyrnway Saddlepan landed the spoils in 1:59.9, all the more impressive as he started from a second line handicap trail. Whilst the USA have the “Minister For Speed” George Brennan, the “Purple Jesus” David Miller and the “Green Hornet” Yannick Gingras Racetime has its very own “Donegal Demon” in Hugh Friel and he has done a stellar job in training and driving the veteran campaigner Vyrnwy Saddlepan in recent weeks.

At the wire, Saddlepan had a ½ length to spare over Hilltop North Art and the same back to John Barley will the luckless pacemaker Derrybeg only managing fourth.

The meeting ended with a five runner square trot which seen Socrates Du Noyer’s winning sequence coming to an abrupt end at the hands of arch rival Bocage De Fornet. On a 4 timer, Finbarr Brickley’s gallant chestnut had to give all 4 opponents a handicap start this time and it was a bridge too far for the brave French bred who went down fighting.

So often on the receiving end of a cat-and-mouse game this time it was Bocage De Fornet’s chance to employ those tactics on Socrates Du Noyer and when given the office by driver Greg Dean the 10 year old accelerated away to the home straight to claim the scalp of Socrates in 2:35 for the extended mile and a quarter journey.

Hurricane Star recovered sufficiently from an early break to snatch third spot ahead of Evan Jive and Durandal Jihaime with the distances two lengths and a further six lengths respectively  

by Thomas Bennett, for Harnesslink