BLACK BERRY can continue to get his season back on track by landing a double at Southwell today with Bollero and Come Too Mamma's. The Cockerham trainer did not make his usual lightning start to the turf season in the spring and is some way down on his normal tally of winners by this stage of the campaign.
But the two-year-old specialist has begun to make up for lost time with eight successes in the past fortnight. And he can confirm that normal service has been resumed by striking in both the juvenile races at Southwell today.
Bollero stands out in the Sweden Auction Maiden. She looked very much in need of the experience on her debut at Hamilton a week ago, losing a lot of ground at the start and running green to past halfway. Yet she still recovered to lead at the distance before losing out narrowly to the more experienced Tazibari.
Bollero pulled fully 15 lengths clear of the remainder and obviously has the ability to win races. She will have learnt a lot from her first outing and can go one place better today.
Come Too Mamma's should also step up on a promising debut to land the Denmark Fillies' Selling Stakes. Like her stable-companion, the filly missed the break first time out.
That was a severe handicap on a track as fast as Wolverhampton where she was contesting a five-furlong event and it was very encouraging to see her recover well enough to take third place, beaten little over a length.
Berry will have been working on her stalls departure ever since and looks to have found the ideal opportunity for the 2,200-guinea yearling to repay her purchase price with interest.
On turf at Redcar, Forest Fantasy is a very interesting contender for the mile-and-a-quarter Mackinlay Memorial Handicap. The pedigree of the daughter of Rambo Dancer suggests she will improve markedly for a step up to middle-distances.
Which makes her potentially well ahead of the handicapper judged on a very promising fourth over just a mile at Leicester last month when she was set a lot to do but finished best of all.
Forest Fantasy was not at all knocked about at any stage that day and is clearly well enough treated at the weights to win races at a mile - she should not be missed now that she encounters a more suitable trip.
