It gave me immense pleasure to see Mister Trader bounce back to winning ways in the Matchbook Exchange Handicap over 5 furlongs at Cork today. He's a horse that always had a very high level of ability having started with an easy debut win in the first 2yo race of the Irish season at the Curragh in 2016 and followed that up on his next run when 2nd to Caravaggio in the Marble Hill Stakes (Listed) also at the Curragh.
After those initial runs he had 2 years of all kinds of physical issues. Not surprisingly those issues took their toll on him mentally and he had totally lost his confidence. For the past 8 or 9 month's we've worked on rebuilding that confidence. It's been a long and challenging road at times but days like today make it all worthwhile. I couldn't be happier.
Of course on this type of journey with a horse you need owners who are patient and willing to allow the time to address all of the issues. His owners Straight To Victory have been absolutely brilliant in that respect and I am so thrilled for them to have this win today. I know it means as much to them as it does to myself and my team. Many thanks to the syndicate and also to my team for all their excellent work.
Nathan Crosse gave him an excellent ride today and I've been very impressed with him. He did exactly as we wanted and I think he's a young rider with a big future.
We'll take it one step at a time now with Mister Trader so that we can keep him moving in the right direction and build on what he has achieved today. I'm sure that getting his head in front after so long will give him another massive confidence boost. He certainly had a great swagger about him after today's race. Very much looking forward to seeing how he progresses from here.