The 2.55pm Tomrods Steel Handicap 29th July 2016

A sunny day, great company and some deep pockets were all in play last Friday as Tomrods and our invited guests went to the races! It was the first day of the Summer Cup Meetings at Thirsk Racecourse and it’s fair to say that North Yorkshire’s fashionistas were all out in force too!

The welcome glasses of Pimms and chilled beer served up for starters in our private box certainly went down a real treat before we eagerly sat down for what turned out to be a wonderful three course buffet lunch. As the first race time fast approached so did some lively chats centred on the most likely anticipated winner of each horse race and what type of complex bets to place to potentially outsmart the Tote!

As you can well imagine we all cheered in unison as the 2.55pm Tomrods Steel Handicap race was announced on the loudspeaker tannoy! Tomrods’ one mile sponsored race was ultimately won by Imperial State a handsome three year old bay gelding in a recorded time of 1 minute 43 seconds; ridden by the jockey Ted Durcan, trained by George Scott and owned by the Hamage Partnership.

Yes, there are many assets that make up a great racehorse such as speed, stamina and a competitive nature so it’s always a good idea to at least scan the well-considered tips provided in The Racing Post isn’t it? If only it was that easy! There’s only one way of course to guarantee not losing any money at the races but where’s the fun in that?! Despite a few lighter wallets in our party on the way home it was still most definitely considered a win, win afternoon out for all!

Laurence McDougall (Joint Owner) & Tom McDougall (Production & Logistics Manager) of Tomrods are seen below presenting the first place winner trophy of The Tomrods Steel Handicap to the owners of Imperial State.