Rankin impressed with record-breaking Rioja
Daniel Rankin gives his view on a tremendous renewal of the ARC Kent Silver Salver at Central Park.
Rioja Rules at Central Park
Rioja Oisin capped a fairytale comeback when landing the ARC Kent Silver Salver at Central Park on Saturday.
The Kevin Hutton-trained dog went head-to-head with Ballinakill Liam early doors before running a lovely bend to emerge in front and going on to beat that rival by two and a half lengths in a scintillating performance.
The son of Droopys Sydney was injured in the National Sprint final at Nottingham on 23rd December last year and didn’t make his return until late May.
Central Park Racing Executive, Daniel Rankin, was happy to get such a hot final and he was very impressed by the performance of the winner.
“It was a good final, a really good race,” said Rankin.
“Ballinakill Liam broke well and it looked like he might be the winner, but Rioja Oisin showed ferocious pace to get to the front at the first bend. Once it was roaring into the corner, you knew it was going to be hard to catch.
“There was a little bit of trouble in behind, but that’s typical with sprint races once the first couple get round.
“He (Rioja Oisin) has not been trapping great and was just showing fantastic pace to the corner. He came away on Saturday and was helped by Beaming Isla missing the break, because she had been showing pace up and she gave him a free run to the bend.”
As if winning such a good race and a first prize of £12,500 wasn’t enough, Rioja Oisin also broke the track record by going one spot inside the previous best of 16.02 set by King Presley.
“It was a great run considering the track was running a bit slow (going officially -20) compared to what it has been recently
“King Presley did his record when it was 10 spots slow and it was 20 spots slow on Saturday, so for a comparison it was a really good run.”
Rankin was quick to praise the training performance from Hutton in getting Rioja Oisin back to win such a good Category One event after a long layoff.
“Rioja Oisin got a bad injury in December and he was off the card for a long time, so this was his first competition back after six months off.
“So, to be off from December until May and to then win a Category One is a big achievement. It was some training performance to do that on only his fourth run back.
“He has got an amazing win record. He hasn’t had that many races for his age (May 2022 whelp) but most of them have been wins. “
