I’m sure we’re all dreaming of sunnier climbs right now, perhaps a beach holiday in sunny Australia, or is that too much to ask? Most likely, oh well I’ll stick with the best AU online casino sites to create my Aussie experience, and get back to reviewing some much loved horses, now that there’s a bit more life to races and racecourses in the UK!
Owned by Tony Hirschfeld, Stephen Piper, David Fish and John Collins and trained by Roger Teal in Lambourn, Berkshire, Oxted is a Group 1 winning sprinter. The son of July Cup winner Mayson was gelded before making his solitary, unsuccessful start as a two-year-old, at Doncaster in November, 2018. He did, however, make a winning reappearance in an ordinary novice stakes race, over 7 furlongs, at Salisbury the following April. Interestingly, that was the one and only time he has tackled further than 6 furlongs, at least so far, and he was immediately dropped back to sprinting distances.
He won the valuable Portland Handicap, over 5½ furlongs, at Doncaster in September, 2019, on the final start of his three-year-old campaign, but was to make further progress through the ranks as an older horse. As a four-year-old he raced just three times, winning the Group 3 Abernant Stakes at Newmarket, following up in the Group 1 July Cup – on his first attempt at the highest level – and, following wind surgery, finishing a close fifth in the British Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot. It’s hard to fault such form. I only wish I could have taken that with me in my crazyvegas online casino days.
Oxted began five-year-old campaign with three defeats, but ran respectably in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint, Abernant Stakes and Duke of York Stakes en route to Royal Ascot. At the Royal Meeting, connections took the bold step of dropping him back to the minimum trip for the first time in his career, in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes on the opening day. However, Oxted proved more than equal to the task, winning by 1¾ lengths, going away, and landing a gamble in the process.
Being British, when growing up my knowledge of Australia was rather comically limited to the BBC (at the time) soap Neighbours. That may sound ludicrous in this day and age but the Australian soap opera had the whole country engrossed for a good decade plus. We got to take in the sun, sea and sand. The local coffee shop, and various strange and unlikely happenings you’d expect of a soap opera. All taking place around the location of the show; Erinsborough (a fictional place for what it’s worth!).