STATUES FLY IN BRITAIN

Great performance by Tempest Tost in the Group One Winter Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday (20 June).

Leading for most of the journey, Tempest Tost was only collared by the winner Russeting in the final 100m and the Statue of Liberty filly is shaping up for a memorable spring.

Winner of the Magic Millions 3YO Trophy-LR in January, Tempest Tost has now had three runs back from a spell, earning a cheque on each occasion.

But while Tempest Tost was doing her darndest at Eagle Farm, Statue of Liberty continues to make an impact north of the equator with a double in Britain on Friday, followed by a ‘visit’ from The Tooth Fairy in Ireland on Saturday.

Bedloe’s Island, although bred in Ireland, is out of the Scenic mare Scenaria and proved much too strong for rivals in the Ladies Day Tomorrow Handicap at Redcar, taking the lead a furlong out and – according to Racing Post – ran on “very readily” to score by over two lengths.

Across the sea – an ‘Island’ away – another Statue of Liberty 4YO in Liberty Island, raced away with the Tote Ireland Handicap at Down Royal racecourse.

From the Singspiel mare Birthday, Liberty Island hit the lead 500m from home and raced on strongly to score easily.

A day later – also at Down Royal – Michael Mulvany’s The Tooth Fairy strutted his stuff over the 7 furlong course, trouncing his rivals with a deserved victory.

By Statue of Liberty from the Fairy King mare Fairy Lore, The Tooth Fairy has won or placed at four starts since the start of May and, after sitting just off the leaders at Down Royal, he collared them with 150m to go and scored by 2.5 lengths.

It’s not difficult to see why Statue of Liberty is so popular down under, but he’s also doing plenty of flag waving in the northern hemisphere.

PS. It’s truly astounding that in an era as technologically advanced as ours, we still have duplication of horse names. And we’re not talking about some maiden winner from the 1930s whose moniker has been dredged up for the ‘noughties’. A case in point is Liberty Island – both the French and Irish versions. It’s bad enough that two racing associations, in relatively close proximity, can’t get their noggins together to open dialogue on eradicating such conflicts, but when you have two Liberty Islands – both by the same sire and both foaled in the same year (2005) – it’s fairly ludicrous. Especially when the French are so easy to work with!