SCARPETA TO MAKE RETURN TO THE FLAT
Thurloe Ireland’s Scarpeta will begin his flat campaign at Killarney this evening (8.10pm) with reigning Irish champion jockey, Colin Keane, on board. Our Willie Mullins trained five year old has had a fruitful time as a novice hurdler for us, winning impressively the second time of asking over the jumps at Gowran Park and going on to finish an emphatic fourth to Samcro at the Cheltenham Festival. Scarpeta was last seen when being brought down in unfortunate circumstances at Punchestown during the Festival week. He has since had a couple of weeks break to freshen up for his first run for us on the flat.
Scarpeta was a decent handicapper on the flat for previous trainer, Mark Johnston. He won on three occasions from 1m 4f – 1m 6f including on very fast ground at Lingfield in July 2016, finishing his three year old campaign with a mark of 75. Thurloe Ireland went on to purchase Scarpeta from the 2016 Horses in Training Sales. He had a year to strengthen up before taking to the jumps at the back end of 2017.
We are excited to see Scarpeta back on the flat where his career began and look forward to see where it may take him next.