Roman Dragon revels on the Roodee once more The opener of the second day of Chester’s Boodles May Festival could not have had a more popular winner than it did with course specialist Roman Dragon landing the five-furlong CAA Stellar Handicap. Sent off at 4-1, Roman Dragon was already the winning-most horse around his local Roodee and took his tally to an impressive eight wins from 21 runs. Oisin Murphy had the Heeraat gelding positioned prominently through the race and fought off the late challenge from stablemate Dubai Bling to win by a head. Malpas trainer Hugo Palmer said: “Roman Dragon around here is so special. He loses interest in a straight line and he’s a very balanced, agile, nimble horse. “I think he just has a look around and straight lines don’t do it for him, but he ran very well at York last year. He has won in Bahrain as well, but for him it’s all about here and he will come back here when he can. “He won the Queensferry Stakes last year and we’ll try to win it again later in the summer.” Roman Dragon was warmly received in the winner’s enclosure, particularly so by breeder and co-owner Michael Owen who said: “We foaled him at home and he was a little ill horse who we were up in the middle of the night treating and it’s just brilliant to see him do what he does.” On the second-placed Dubai Bling, Palmer said: “I’ve always wanted a dead-heat in a race and it’s about as close as it gets really. The horse I fancied was Dubai Bling and Billy (Loughnane) said he’s still learning to sprint. We’ll save him for the Wokingham now I think.” Palmer and Murphy made it a quickfire double when taking the significantly delayed second race on the card, courtesy of Donegal Rose – who had snooker star part-owner Kyren Wilson cheering her on in the British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden Stakes. Donegal Rose (9-4 favourite) put up a decent debut performance when a hampered fifth at Leicester last month and showed herself to be a progressive type, much to the excitement of 2024 world champion Wilson, who said: “That was amazing, I didn’t know how much of a buzz this would bring. “It’s a fantastic hobby for me and my wife to be involved in and she was actually involved in Koodini (ninth) so we were up against each other in this race. Didn’t Donegal run on well at the end and Oisin on top did a fantastic job.” Wilson is no stranger to handling disruption as a professional sportsman and commented on the delay of around an hour due to an inspection of the track following the first race: “We’ve had a few in snooker and there was the ‘just stop oil’ when they ruined the table and another recently. “When you are at the highest level in sport it’s about keeping your mind on the job and Oisin obviously did that. “I didn’t feel nervous because of the build-up today – probably because we didn’t know if it would go ahead. So I didn’t feel any nerves until they went in the stalls and I was watching on the screen. But what a buzz.”
