Lady Litigator dug deep to gain a highly pleasing success on her racecourse debut in a competitive three-year-old fillies’ bumper at Newbury on Wednesday.
Her task wasn’t helped when she was left in front a long way from home, but despite running green through inexperience she responded willingly whenever she was challenged.
At the line, Lady Litigator prevailed by a head from the favourite Galaxy Star and it was encouraging to hear her jockey Rex Dingle say that he felt she would have found more if necessary.
The original plan to start her racing career at Stratford two months ago was foiled by a minor setback which briefly put her on the easy list.
As a result, she hadn’t had an away day before Wednesday, just plenty of education at home, which makes her performance even more impressive.
We bought Lady Litigator for €20,000 as a two-year-old at the Arqana sales with the help of Highflyer’s Tessa Greatrex.
My interest was sparked when I noticed she was out of a half-sister to our marvellous old flagbearer Regal Encore, who is still enjoying life in retirement and learning a new discipline in the eventing world. He looked marvellous when he was among the horses parading at Cheltenham recently.
We will give Lady Litigator an easy few weeks before possibly looking for a mares’ Listed bumper for her.
She looks a promising prospect for the partnership of four who own her, which includes Diana Goodall, part-owner of Park Princess, who landed the same bumper at Newbury on her debut two years ago.
