Cozy Sky An Impressive Third At Sligo On Debut For Gordon Elliott Racing Club

March 19, 2021

Cheltenham 2021 - Review

The week belongs to Henry De Bromhead, Rachael Blackmore and Jack Kennedy. Minella Indo won the Gold Cup having lost the RSA on the line this time last year. Everyone loves a comeback story and this is one because following that defeat there was a fall at Leopardstown at Christmas and a very ordinary run in February. I thought he was very overrated and even though he fit the age range (the last 3 winners of the race were 7 or 8 years old), I over looked him for Al Boum Photo. Funnily enough it had the feel of when Al Boum Photo won in 2019 because there wasn't a lot of talk about him. I still expected him to be beaten even when he flew the last but A Plus Tard couldn't run him down. He proved me and the doubters wrong today by adding the top prize in National Hunt racing to that narrow second last year and the Albert Bartlett two years ago. What a Cheltenham record! Fantastic for Jack Kennedy as well. He's had some week too - Black Tears beating the hot favourite Concertis

Cozy Sky is a 3 year old filly by Animal Kingdom and Let's Get Cozzy and she went in the first division of the 6 furlong 3 year old handicap at Sligo in the green and black silks of GERC. This was only her seventh run since starting out last year and it was a very impressive debut that gave the club members plenty to talk about.

She was easy to spot with her grey coat and Jockey, Leigh Roche, had her tucked away along the rail in the 13 strong field. It was a short distance race and they were bowling along at some pace on the tight Sligo course. It was good to see that Cozy Sky was able to go with them. She started making some progress as they approached the end of the back straight but I think her hind legs got tapped by a horse behind and that momentarily slowed her. It was great to see that wasn't the end though and with a furlong and half to go, entering the straight, she attacked again. Leigh Roche moved her towards the centre, looking for a gap and she stayed on well to finish a couple of lengths behind the winner Pleasurable trained by Jessica Harrington.

It was a very impressive run from our horse and the members in attendance reported afterwards that Leigh Roche thought she would go well on a course with more room like Down Royal. It's on next week but it's a jumps card. There's definitely something of the Smiling Eliza about her. The way she was bumped and kept going. Eliza caught the eye first time out for the club also and then won next time out before going over hurdles. It would be great if Cozy Sky could emulate her early success.