Mums Tipple Fancied to Land Middle Park Stakes

At the end of August, we had four excellent days racing at York for the Ebor Festival. One race on the card was a very valuable sales race, a race that is in theory only a conditions race but one that carries a lot of prize money. Due to this we usually get a decent field and although it wasn’t the most prestigious race of the week, it certainly was the most talked about race of the week due to one horse. The horse was Mums Tipple, he bolted home to win by 11 lengths and make a mockery of the field and on Saturday at Newmarket we get to watch him again, where he will hopefully put up another winning performance.

The Richard Hannon trained two year old was fantastic at York, but is dropped straight into Group One company here, so he will face a completely different class of rivals. However, you couldn’t be anything less than impressed by his York run, the time was excellent and better than the group races on the same card at that distance, so there is plenty of hope that he can be good enough to run at this level and win.

That was just his second start as a racehorse, he was one of the horses brought around slower by the Hannon team, he didn’t make his debut until the end of July. That was at Ascot where he beat a horse called Molatham, one that has since come out and won a good maiden at York and a listed contest at Doncaster. In that Doncaster listed race he beat an Aidan O’Brien horse called Wichita, that horse came out and won with ease on the opening day of this meeting, recording a very good time in the process.

It is fair to say that the form of Mums Tipple is certainly holding up so far, there is a lot of substance behind it and even more reason to like this horse on Saturday.

As far as the opposition goes, the biggest danger and the horse that is challenging for favouritism with Mums Tipple is the French raider Earthlight. This horse has ran four times and won on each occasion, winning a Group Three and a Group One last time out as part of that. He has the experience of running in this kind of company and that is certainly a positive for him, but I don’t like the fact that he is travelling all the way from France for this.

The travel is an issue for me, I don’t like to back young horses when travelling is involved, especially when they haven’t done it before which this horse hasn’t. There is also the difference in race styles, something else that puts me off backing French raiders in this country.

The racing is very different in both countries, and while I think it is easier for our horses to adapt to the style of French racing, I think the opposite is much harder for the French to do. If this horse wants to come over here and win the Group One prize then he is going to have to be right at his best, and with the travel and different type of race on offer, I don’t think he will be and for that reason he is passed over.

This all brings me back to Mums Tipple, a horse I have not stopped thinking about since York. That run was hugely impressive, and gave the impression that there is even more to come from the animal. Ryan Moore described the horse as a big baby when getting off him at York, saying there is every chance that he improves further for the experience. He may not need to if he wants to win this, and if he does then Saturday should mean success.

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