The monster who came out of the fens

The monster who came out of the fens, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

This horse, Speciosa, has provided the best story of the Flat Racing season in England so far by winning her big race, the 1,000 Guineas, the target of the best two year old fillies of last year. She is owned and trained by a small woman trainer in the fens of Eastern England. During the winter, the owner/trainer had received offers of over a million pounds toi buy Speciosa, whoi had originally cost just 30,000 pounds. The small owners turned down the offers and were rewrded by winning the first fillies Classic, against multi-millionaire Irish and Arab owners.

Today, she will try to run an extra half a mile and win the second fillies classic, The Oaks, at Epsom. She is 5-1 and it would be so great if she could do it to show that money cannot amways buy success and that the small people can still compete. I have a very small financial interest and I wish her the best of luck this afternoon.

Tomorrow, it is the Derby, which for once is due to be run on a gloriously warm English summers day. My favourite trainer, Geoff Wragg, who won the race in 1983 with Teenoso, has Dragon Dancer running in the race. He has come a close second to two of the more fancied runners in the field tomorrow. But while they are 7-1 and 12-1, Dragon Dancer is 66-1, worth a small finacial interest, in my view.

P.S. Asd it happened, Speciosa had the lead until almost the very end and came fourth behind a millionaire owned Irish horse, the favourite. Second, those was another horse from a small stable. Still, a great story.