Charlie Fellowes hails Lingfield’s owners for stumping up impressive prize-money
- Planet Sport writer
- 20 January 2023
Charlie Fellowes has praised Lingfield's owners Arena Racing Company for putting on such huge prize-money for Saturday's meeting at time when owners are struggling to resist huge offers from abroad.
Fellowes runs two horses in the Winter Oaks at Lingfield on Saturday with top-weight Purple Ribbon joined by stablemate Tequilamockingbird.
He said: "You've got to give all credit to ARC. It's prize-money like this that will encourage people to keep horses in training and Tequilamockingbird is a perfect example of that, as she was due to be sold at the mares sale last year and I managed to persuade the owners to remove her from the sale and keep her in training over the winter for a crack at this.
"That is what everyone wants - to see horses kept in training in Britain. We have a fantastic industry and it's frustrating for a lot of people that the cream of our horses tend to get sold abroad.
"The more of this (prize-money) we can get, the more we can keep horses in training and rebuff these ridiculous offers we're getting from abroad.
"It's all down to prize-money and the more money we can offer, the more we can attract our owners to keep horses here and the stronger our industry will be."
Purple Ribbon steps back into a fillies' handicap after finishing second to the highly-rated Belloccio in the Listed Wild Flower Stakes at Kempton in November, while Tequilamockingbird was only a short head behind Makinmedoit when third in the Winter Oaks Trial.
"Purple Ribbon is a very lightly-raced filly, but she's very consistent. Barring an unfortunate run around Lingfield, she's not finished out of the first two," said Fellowes.
"She ran a blinder last time out in a pretty competitive Listed race. She's got the class in the race, but she has to give weight away to everyone, which will be tough.
"But she's a pretty good filly and I've got no concerns about the drop back to 10 furlong as she's got plenty of speed, so I'm looking forward to seeing her run.
"Tequilamockingbird is a model of consistency and has a very good record around Lingfield - 10 furlongs around there is literally perfect for her.
"She was a bit unlucky last time out when they went absolutely no gallop and off a stronger pace, she goes in there with a nice each-way squeak."
