Eve Johnson Houghton is hoping to see improvement from Havana Hurricane in Friday’s Betfred British EBF Woodcote Stakes at Epsom.
The two-year-old heads into the Listed contest off the back of a debut win at Goodwood which in many ways came as a pleasant surprise to his trainer.
“I’ve always liked Havana Gold, I think he’s a very good stallion and very sadly missed. This horse comes from a good family and is a nice, strong colt,” she told Tuesday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast.
“He’d done some nice work but to be honest I thought he was probably a couple of bits shy mentally more than physically. He certainly learned on the job, it really seemed to click in the race which was good.
“I thought he’d run a really good race and probably be in the first four, but I didn’t think he’d know enough mentally to go and win it like he did.”
The trainer is confident Havana Hurricane will cope with the idiosyncrasies of the track on Friday.
“He liked Goodwood so we know he goes downhill which is half the battle and he’s a nice solid horse. I like the Woodcote as a race and it seems the next obvious spot for him,” she added.
Join the Sporting Life Racing Club in one click
More from Sporting Life
- Free bets
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.