Happy days again for Hannon at Salisbury

Horse Racing

Graham Clark
September 3, 2020 3:19 pm

Money-spinning filly set for Group One tilt next.

Happy Romance continued her remarkable campaign as she gained the first Group-race success of her career in the Shadwell Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes at Salisbury.

The Richard Hannon-trained daughter of Dandy Man added to recent victories in the Weatherbys Super Sprint at Newbury and in the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Stakes at York to make her return to Pattern-race company a triumphant one in the Group Three prize.

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Held up among rivals early on the 11-4 favourite gradually worked through the gears under Sean Levey during the closing stages of the six-furlong prize, before defeating the previously-unbeaten Alcohol Free by three-quarters of a length.

The @rhannonracing trained Happy Romance after taking Group Three glory under @LeveySean in the Dick Poole Stakes @salisburyraces pic.twitter.com/ycMlj48Qzk

— Graham Clark (@GrahamClark85) September 3, 2020

Hannon said: “She has been an amazing filly all year and has done that very well. By Sean’s own admission he thinks he got there a little too soon as she picks up so quick.

“She is very quick and very good. She will have no problem going further and she will get it, as she has no problems relaxing.

“The owners have had a ball, but they’ve not come into the winner’s enclosure once the poor people.

“I took her out of Goodwood (last weekend) because of the ground, as she was going a furlong further there This was a nice spot for her just up the road and she has won very well.”

A crack at the Cheveley Park Stakes is next on the agenda for Happy Romance (Alan Crowhurst/PA)

The Marlborough handler will tread the same path he did with last year’s winner Dark Lady, earmarking the Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket later this month as the next port of call for Happy Romance.

He said: “We will probably go straight for the Cheveley Park now. She is a proper filly. She has won the money and she has now won the black type. They are having a ball.”

Despite runner-up Alcohol Free tasting defeat for the first time in her career, her trainer Andrew Balding was satisfied with her effort.

Balding said: “I was very pleased, as it was tough from that draw. She has run really well.”