It was obviously very disappointing how Lady Mendoza ran yesterday, but as Nathan said after the race, she just hated the ground from the minute she got out onto the track. We did always think she’d prefer better ground, but until you try her on it you don’t know for sure, but it was evident from very early on yesterday that she just wasn’t enjoying the conditions.

The good news is she’s come out of the race absolutely fine, she’s seems in good order this morning, so we’ll give her a few days rest before we start slowly building her up again over the coming weeks. We’ve always said that she’s a lovely mare for the future, so we won’t rush her, but we’d love to win a race with her sooner rather than later.

We’ll have a little think about what to do next before making any plans. Our options are to give her another run in a novice race soon with the view to getting a handicap mark, or we could possibly just wait for nearer the spring with her and find a nice race on better ground, so we’ll have a look at the schedule and see what’s on the horizon.

I’m sure she’ll have learned from the experience yesterday, and she looked a picture in the parade ring beforehand (she even won best turned-out), so we still think the world of her, we just have a clear indication now of what conditions she needs.

I hope all Coral Racing Club members have a fantastic 2023, and I look forward to meeting you all as the year goes on.

Rebecca Menzies, Coral Racing Club Trainer