We headed to Wolverhampton yesterday hopeful that we would have a good evening at the Midlands venue. Arnarson was our first runner in the 7f handicap at 5:10. He had placed twice over 6f recently and he had shaped as if he would benefit from a move back up to 7f. The son of Exceed And Excel had placed on his previous three visits to Wolverhampton and we hoped he could gain an elusive first win with everything in his favour.
Rab Havlin soon had our gelding settled beautifully in midfield as the leaders set solid fractions upfront. He travelled noticably well throughout the contest and looked to be going best of all as the field turned into the home straight. He had to wait for a gap to appear but when it did Arnarson shot through it and he won well by five lengths to gain a first career success.
Everything fell perfectly for Arnarson and we may have to run him under a penalty as the handicapper is likely to punish him for this easy victory. It was not a strong race for the grade and with optimum conditions and a good pace to aim at the son of Exceed And Excel showed what he is capable of. He does have some solid form to his name historically and we hope this victory will boost his confidence and that he continues to be competitive up in grade.
King Kevin has been a revelation over the Winter and he stepped up in grade looking for his third course and distance success over the nine and a half furlong trip. His only defeat since mid November had been when tackling an extended twelve furlongs at Newcastle and we hoped he would run well despite the face that he was facing some in form opponents.
The son of Holy Roman Emperor blew the start by five lengths and it looked as though he had little chance of victory given that the early fractions were relatively sedate. Havlin sat quietly on our gelding and did not panic as he trailed the field for the majority of the contest. King Kevin creeped closer and as the field approached the final bend he had latched on to the back of the field. He was ridden for luck and the gaps started to open up on the inside but it still looked like he was booked for third at best. King Kevin had other ideas though and he flew home up the rail and quickened smartly despite having to be switched to avoid the hanging Berlusca. At the line he was three quarters of a length clear of the second and he pulled off a most remarkable victory.
There is no doubt that King Kevin has been improving rapidly in recent weeks and the handicapper cannot be too hard on him given the margin of victory. If he can break better from the stalls in the future he should still remain on a workable mark given the turn of foot he showed up the home straight. He is currently thriving on his racing and appears to enjoy running through horses. There are more races to be won with him on the level and he looks the sort who could do well over jumps in the future.
Congratulations to Mr Gan who owns Arnarson, this was his first ever winner and we hope your gelding can continue to run well in the future. Well done to everyone here at La Grange, it is a tough time of year and everyone's hard work during the cold Winter months is much appreciated. It was fantastic to get two winners on the board early on in the year and we hope there will be many more winners to come in 2018.