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Raceday LIVE – Ribbon Is A Dancer

Southwell, Wed 13 Nov 2024 17:30

Related horse(s):

Ribbon Is A Dancer
Ribbon Is A Dancer makes his debut for the Coral Racing Club and Hugo Palmer this afternoon in the Class 5 Maiden Stakes (17:30) at Southwell.

Read our Raceday LIVE Preview below and join us ahead of the race for all the build-up and live updates from the track with the team and Ribbon Is A Dancer's lucky owners for the day across our social channels on X (@coral) and Instagram (@coralofficial).

Raceday LIVE Preview

After being introduced to the Club back in July, it was down to our members to come up with a name for our two-year-old colt through a series of 'Name Your Horse' competitions, and following a final vote, hr was officially named Ribbon Is A Dancer. The lucky member who submitted the name won an Ultimate Owner for the Day experience for today's debut run, including owners badges, accommodation, travel expenses and more!

Since being named, it's taken a little longer for him to be ready for his racecourse debut after suffering from a small muscle injury. Fortunately, it wasn't anything that a few weeks rest couldn't solve, and he was soon back out working on the gallops at Manor House Stables getting put through his paces as he built up his fitness and readiness for today's debut run.

His sire is Soldier's Call, who was a Royal Ascot-winning juvenile and also won the Group 2 Flying Childers in his first season, before being placed multiple times at Group 1 level. In his short stallion career, he has already sired the winners of over £430,000 in prize money. Now let's be honest, we're not saying Ribbon Is A Dancer is quite going to show up to that level, but if he can even be anywhere near it, then we're sure to have plenty of great days out racing with him.


Soldier's Call winning The Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2018

Ribbon Is A Dancer has been given the widest stall of all in gate 11 in today's race, so jockey Liam Wright will have an early task of getting him in a handy enough position without using too much energy at the beginning.

It'll be Liam's first ever ride for the Coral Racing Club this afternoon, and he's able to claim five pounds off the back of Ribbon Is A Dancer as he's still an apprentice, but he's a jockey who has more than enough experience at Southwell with 22 rides under his belt, so we're looking forward to seeing how the pair get on later today.

WATCH: Ribbon Is A Dancer's recent work on the gallops at Manor House
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Ahead of today's race, we caught up with trainer Hugo Palmer and this is what he had to say:

"We’re very happy with Ribbon Is A Dancer in terms of his recent homework, and he looks great, so this is the right time to get him started. Unfortunately he’s been drawn widest of all in stall 11, that’s not helpful at all for a horse making his debut, with nothing on one side of him, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he was slowly away, and he could then jump away to one side as well.
 
It is what it is though, so we’ll make the best of it. It doesn’t look a race with much strength in depth, and I do believe this horse will win races. Grey Salvo looks the one to beat based on his debut run, but if we were rated higher than him in time I wouldn’t be surprised.
 
Liam Wright is a talented young apprentice who has ridden for me before, so I’m happy to have him ride here. We’ve got the horse as fit as we can at home, it’s only reasonable to expect improvement for the run, but I’m looking forward to getting him started. It is just a shame about the wide draw."


As Hugo mentions, we're all just excited to see Ribbon Is A Dancer in action for the first time where he'll no doubt learn plenty. It'll be his first time experiencing being in a parade ring, heading down to post, being surrounded by many other trainers, jockeys and owners in a more confined space, so fingers crossed it all goes smoothly for the team and he comes back in good order after the race.

WATCH: Assistant Trainer for the Day with Hugo Palmer

A couple of months ago one lucky Coral Racing Club member got the chance to head to Manor House Stables to experience what it's like to be Hugo's assistant trainer for the day.

From heading out onto the gallops to see how the classic winning trainer works his team in a morning, to planning upcoming races and jockey bookings – tune in to check out how the day went.

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Chris Dixon, Racing TV Analyst, gives us an exclusive preview of today's 17:30 at Southwell

Hugo Palmer has had a good season with his 2yo’s so it will be interesting to see how Ribbon Is A Dancer gets on as he makes his racecourse debut today. A son of Soldier’s Call, he’s out of a mare who has produced two winners from her two previous foals and on pedigree at least, he looks to be starting out at the right trip. A 15,000 Guineas buy, he qualifies for this restricted maiden only open to horses in Bands C & D, so there’s no outstandingly bred or expensively purchased youngsters among the opposition. Many of the field did cost slightly more at some stage, but Ribbon Is A Dancer appeals at least as much as most on pedigree and this looks an ideal start point for him. The downside is a wide draw in stall 11 which looks a likely disadvantage, especially for one lacking in any previous racecourse experience.

Grey Salvo sets the standard on form on account of her course and distance debut nine days ago and a similar effort from an ideal draw in stall six may well be enough to see her off the mark at the second time of asking, while Kildonan’s form in France would seemingly give him a chance, but he’s yet to reproduce that level in a couple of subsequent starts. Of the others, Trouble Man is related to three winners, including four-time winner Lir Speciale who hit a career high rating of 97, so looks of more interest than many, alongside Miss Funky Monk who is related to a couple of winners, among them the Group 2 placed Wheels On Fire, though the application of blinkers on debut doesn’t look an encouraging sign. 

Trainer and Jockey Statistics

Hugo Palmer has been fairly quiet since the flat turn season came to a close, but that's no doubt partly due to the fact he headed over to this year's Breeders' Cup in Del Mar as he had two horses running in two Grade 1 contests at the Californian track. In terms of two-year-olds this season, he's had 157 runners including 25 winners and a further 34 placed, which is very healthy strike-rate across the board.

Liam Wright has had six rides in the past two weeks, including a close second place finish on his penultimate ride at Doncaster's final meeting of the year this Saturday just gone. Liam has done much of his riding in all-weather contests so far in his career (215 rides), and with one win and two placed efforts so far at Southwell, hopefully he'll be able to go close with Ribbon Is A Dancer later today to try add to those numbers.

Ribbon Is A Dancer's Owners for the Day

As winners of the recent Owner for the Day competition, 10 lucky Coral Racing Club members have been given the chance to enjoy an exclusive owners experience for Ribbon Is A Dancer's run at Southwell this afternoon.

Each winner, along with a guest of their choosing, will receive free entry to Southwell Racecourse, including exclusive access to Owners & Trainers areas. They'll have the opportunity to meet Ribbon Is A Dancer and the Hugo Palmer team, plus get to head into the parade ring before the race begins to be amongst all the other owners, trainers and jockeys. And last but by no means least, each winner will get to take home an equal 10% split of any prize money won by Ribbon Is A Dancer.

Prize Money

Today's Class 6 contest is worth £6,300 in total, with the winner set to scoop £3,402 for their lucky owners.

2nd: £1,597 | 3rd: £798 | 4th: £399


      17:30 SOUTHWELL – LATEST ODDS     

We hope you enjoyed reading today's Raceday LIVE Preview. Don't forget to tune in just before 17:30 to watch Ribbon Is A Dancer's debut run for the club live on the Coral Sports app.
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