Rory And Me is one of our most exiting prospects, and he makes his seasonal debut on Friday in the 7.55pm at Ripon, under P.J. McDonald.The one mile, and six furlongs trip should play to his strengths,as he was doing his best work late on at this track over 12 furlongs two runs back Since his last run in October, in very soft ground, he has had wind surgery, and the predicted good to firm ground shouldn't be a problem.
Good luck to the connections, Richard Howard & Ben Howard.
Most of us never stop to think where a racehorse gets it's name from, some are cleverly named from the sire and the dam, some are named after pop songs, and some are blatantly named to promote ones business (nothing wrong with that,) I am led to believe that Rory is the pet dog belonging to the owners.
Rory And Me is a very exciting prospect who has still got a lot of strengthening up, and maturing to do.He made his debut in a Market Rasen bumper in May of last year, exceeding expectations by winning, and in the process beating the Nicky Henderson trained Corrany by four lengths, that horse is now a 130 rated hurdler. He was slightly disappointing next time at Southwell, but still finished third. Then it was back to Market Rasen, where under a penalty he reminded us of what he is capable of, by doing what he did on his debut. Rather than go straight over hurdles, it was decided that in order to gain further experience he would have an Autumn campaign on the flat. Giving 10lb of weight for age to classically bred three year old's was never going to be easy, but he finished a very respectable third of five on his flat debut at Pontefract in September. It was nine days later at Ripon that we saw what he is capable of as a flat horse, when staying on over 12 furlongs to be only touched off by a neck, giving 12 pounds to the Ralph Beckett trained Isabella Brant. He had one more run back at Pontefract in October, when finishing down the field in very soft ground which he didn't appear to enjoy, the winner of that race was Lady Scatterley who had been a length and a half behind him at Ripon previously.
On receiving the time he needs to further strengthen, and mature, Rory And Me should progress into a high class dual purpose horse.