COQUELICOT extended the fine form form of our team with a decisive success on her handicap debut on the flat at Nottingham in the colours of our yard sponsor Geegeez.co.uk.
In winning the two mile handicap by four lengths from the favourite Tuddenham Green she was providing my first victory on the flat for more than 2,000 days.
To be fair I don’t have too many fancied runners on the level but I was hopeful of a decent show from Cookie (as she is known in the yard) on her favoured soft ground.
She is a smart mare, stays well, won three bumpers when she was younger and has also been successful three times over hurdles.
She is by SOLDIER OF FORTUNE out of a talented mare MOSCOW NIGHTS whose progeny have done well on the flat with a half brother finishing second in the Melbourne Cup.
Matt Bisogno, the brains behind GeeGeez, has always believed Coquelicot had the potential to make her mark on the flat and she had run with promise on all three starts which earned a mark of 71 for Nottingham.
Watching on my phone from Wincanton, where we had four runners, I was encouraged that she made steady progress in the finishing straight without her jockey Andrea Atzeni getting too serious.When he did ask her to kick on she stayed on relentlessly to seal the victory.
Coquelicot is already qualified for the final of a mares’ series handicap hurdle at Cheltenham in a fortnight’s time. But who knows what the ground will be by then?
Now that she has broken her duck on the flat I’d imagine she is more likely to run next on Tuesday in round one of the 2023 Pontefract Stayers Championship over two and a quarter miles. The extra distance will be right up her street.
