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SMOOTH Success in the Plate
- moleymanes333
- Jul 3, 2024
- 2 min read
On Saturday, ONESMOOTHOPERATOR (USA) trained by Brian Ellison was a ready winner of the Jenningsbet Northumberland Plate at Newcastle under Connor Beasley on what was the most special of days for everyone involved.
A few days on from Smoothie's victory it is still difficult to put into words just how much this means to us all. Winning the big race at our local track will stay with us forever. This is our biggest race victory as owners and we are so pleased to be involved in the horse that has given Brian a first success in the race he has always wanted to win.
Connor gave Smoothie a peach of a ride sitting towards the rear throughout, turning for home Connor angled him wide and with a couple of pushes he had passed all but one of the horses in front of him in a fittingly smooth fashion. Heading into the final furlong, and seemingly with a lot of horse still underneath him, Connor finally said go and put the race to bed in a matter of strides. The eventual winning margin was a comfortable 2 1/2 lengths with a new course record being set -1.07 seconds faster than the previous record.
It wasn't to be for TASHKHAN (IRE) and Ben Robinson with Tash not performing on the quick riding all-weather surface, but they both played their part in the success by pushing a strong end-to-end gallop which was ultimately to the benefit of Onesmoothoperator's finishing effort.
Thanks go to so many but no one deserves more praise than Matt Brown who does a fantastic job looking after & riding out Smoothie every day. He has been his biggest supporter and has believed in him since day one.
Our biggest thanks & congratulations go to Brian & Claire, Jessica & Ben, Matt, Andy, Kayleigh, and all of the staff at the yard who without them these days would not be possible, to Connor for an ice-cool ride, to good friend David Appleton who bought Smoothie for us specifically as a horse for this race, to Newcastle Racecourse and their wonderful staff, and to all our family and friends who were there to make the day (and night) one to remember!
