Jessica Harrington speaks to Oli Bell about her chances of further success at the Sky Bet Ebor Festival at York.
WATCH the in-depth interview below to find out the experienced dual-purpose trainer's thoughts on...
- Magical Lagoon
- Ever Present
Harrington said of leading Sky Bet Ebor hope Ever Present: "It’s been the plan ever since last September. Ascot didn’t happen (non-runner, self-cert), it was one of those things and probably wasn’t the right race to go for anyway in hindsight.
"But he had a nice run in the Her Majesty’s Plate, the Listed race up in Down Royal. He got in a bit of a muddle and didn’t get out in time but I hope he’s in a good place now.
"He’ll love the quick pace and he’ll like firm ground.
"He likes that (big field), he’s quite a big horse himself – he’s a big strong gelding and he started off his career in a bumper, slogging two miles around Punchestown.
"Then we discovered he didn’t really go on soft ground, but he was a revelation on good fast ground.
"We were only ever going to give him one run before York in order to protect his handicap mark and that’s what we’ve done.
"The prize money is brilliant, you need a plan for these horses and they need to be tough, hard-knocking handicappers who are four, five or six, and they need to be very nearly Group horses."
