VARSOVIAN completed his hat-trick at Wolverhampton yesterday in fine style when winning the six furlong claimer comfortably under a confident front-running ride by Robert Winston.
The eight-year-old son of Refuse To Bend has been in good form of late with wins at Lingfield and Wolverhampton in selling races during the last month. Varsovian may be in the latter stages of his racing career but he continues to surprise and confound his critics.
Last week was his tenth win but his first on the grass when he trounced the opposition at Windsor by three and a half lengths. Better known for his exploits on the all-weather with wins at Kempton, Chelmsford and Lingfield, he had never won at Wolverhampton in three previous starts which may explain why he was relatively weak in the market, going off the 3/1 second favourite.
Despite being drawn wide of the eight runners, Varsovian soon grabbed the inside rail and led after a furlong. He was headed a furlong from home but was shaken up by Robert Winston, regained the lead and ran on to win going away by a length and a quarter from Newstead Abbey.
Perhaps surprisingly, there was no claim for Varsovian, who was winning his 11th race in 47 starts and yet the second, third and fourth horses were all claimed, despite two of them being seven and eight-yea-olds. The stable is delighted to have him back as he’s so genuine, versatile and certainly earns his corn!
The victory was the 25th of the year for Harper Lodge Farm at a healthy 15% strike rate. Varsovian is one of fourteen individual horses in the stable to have won in 2018 and he joins Tropics and Lucymai on the three-winner mark. Only Spring Romance, with four victories to his name, has won more.