TEAM SPIRIT, RELENTLESS ME & TOP BEAUTIFUL
16th June 2018
Price Bloodstock and Hong Kong trainer Chris So have been a firm partnership over the past few seasons and they are closing in quickly on a half century of wins together after a winning treble at Sha Tin on Saturday.
Wins for the appropriately-named Team Spirit, Relentless Me and Top Beautiful took the Price Bloodstock-So tally for the season to 13 wins – the same number that had been achieved in the previous two terms, so the partnership is on target to improve on that and quite possibly with any of those three horses.
Team Spirit is a three-year-old who was breaking through for his maiden victory after two promising efforts had seen him finish runner-up down the straight and then over 1,200m and champion jockey Joao Moreira was gifted an easy lead on the son of Strategic as he justified his hot favouritism.
“I was very confident that today would be his first win – so confident I even convinced the owner and his family to come to Sha Tin for the winning photo instead of going to the World Cup in Russia,” So grinned.
Now that is laying your judgment on the line, but Team Spirit never gave anyone a moment’s worry, sailing along in the lead then extending away to win comfortably.
“The owner hasn’t had a lot of luck with his horses before but I think he has a nice one now,” So said. “Like most of the Price Bloodstock horses, he is he is a very honest and straightforward horse, and that can take them a long way here.”
Relentless Me already had two wins on the board last season but had endured a frustrating time in 2017-18 through no fault of his own.
“He has been quite unlucky with barriers all season – even today he had to come from barrier 12 and that always complicates things,” So explained. “But Chad Schofield gave him a good ride and this horse really deserved to win again. He and Team Spirit are capable of winning again before the end of the season.”
Top Beautiful was also scoring for the third time, all of them this season but not since winning his first 2 starts in September like a horse going places.
“Obviously, it doesn’t get any easier when the horse goes up quickly in the handicaps as he did at the start of the season, when he was still a very inexperienced horse,” So said. “He had some bad luck after that and I gave him a break in the kiddle of the season to freshen him up. It took him a few runs to get back to top form but he is there now and Joao gave him a sensational ride from the outside draw today. I think there is still improvement in this horse as he fully matures next season.”