Sporting Times headed across to Lingfield to contest the nine furlong Maiden on Tuesday evening. He faded late on at Nottingham on his seasonal debut when finishing fourth and we hoped he could build on that effort on his second start in 2017. James Doyle soon had him tracking the leaders in a close third and the son of Sir Percy travelled kindly in the perfect position during the early stages of the race. As the field rounded the final turn Pat Cosgrave moved up to box our gelding in but James Doyle was wise to the move and switched Sporting Times to the outside. He gradually got into a rhythm as the leading trio approached the final furlong and wore down Creek Walk and Asaas before pricking his ears and winning cosily by just over a length.
We were very pleased with this performance and there may be some more improvement to come from our gelding over longer trips. We won’t step him up markedly in trip for now but he is from a staying family and his dam Queen Of Iceni was a half-sister to classy stayer Times Up. We would expect him to get a mark in the early 80s from the handicapper and we hope he takes into account that the second is relatively exposed.
Congratulations to Mrs Jane Stewart-Brown and Mr Michael Meacock who own Sporting Times. They have been loyal supporters of ours here at La Grange and we hope he can progress for you and win a nice prize during 2017. Well done to everyone here at Ed Dunlop Racing, we have had a lot of seconds lately and it is good to get another winner on the board for June.