ROA Owner of the Day: Some Day Soon

08 April 2022

MICHAEL OGILVY, ANDREW MORLEY AND GRAHAM SHAW AND THE RACEGOERS CLUB

As the voice of Owners, the ROA are consistently promoting the impact and benefits of ownership whilst working to make ownership more rewarding.

Once again we will be hailing our popular “ROA Owner of the Day” for the Aintree Grand National Festival, which showcases an owner with a runner at the meeting. We are also proud sponsors of the Aintree Festival Leading Owner Award. Both initiatives will be championing Owners’ successes and their contributions to the sport.  

Today’s (Friday 8 April) ROA Owner of the Day is the Racegoers Club, who along with Michael Ogilvy, Andrew Morley and Graham Shaw, own Some Day Soon, who contests the 20 Years Together Alder Hey and Aintree Handicap Hurdle (1.45pm), the opening race on ladies’ day.

The title of the first race at Aintree on Friday shouts about the two decades long partnership between Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and the racecourse, with the local hospital the worthy official charity of the meeting. 

One of the sets of silks being carried in the contest is on behalf of a racing club whose history and relationship with the sport goes back much further, well over 50 years in fact.

The Racegoers Club, a not-for-profit organisation whose aims are to drive support for British racing at all levels, and encourage attendance, engagement and ownership, is represented by the Jamie Snowden-trained Some Day Soon in the two-and-a-half-mile Grade 3 contest, which, typically for a big spring festival handicap, will take some unravelling.

The nine-year-old, who comes into the race fresher than all bar one of his opponents and is the mount of Adrian Heskin, is owned by the club in partnership with Michael Ogilvy, Andrew Morley and Graham Shaw.

Mary-Ann Sandercock, who runs the club and is assisted by a couple of her colleagues at the Racecourse Association, says: “There are 20 Racegoers Club members involved in Some Day Soon, who the club owns half of, so effectively the 20 members have a two and a half per cent share each. 

Some Day Soon.jpg

“We own him with Michael, Andrew and Graham, and he runs in different silks from season to season. He’ll be carrying the Racegoers Club colours on Friday - and needs to buck the trend somewhat as we’ve had more luck when he’s carried Michael’s colours!”

Some Day Soon has not been seen on the course since October, when he was third at Aintree, one of a dozen places he has accumulated in a 23-race career highlighted by five victories, four of which have come over hurdles.

He started out with JP Magnier and Pat Flynn in Ireland, before being picked up by Tom Malone for €35,000 at the Goffs horses-in-training sale in October 2017, since when he has been a very reliable member of Snowden’s Lambourn yard.

Sanderson continues: “In his first full season for us he did really well in novice hurdles, especially in the summer when he won four on the bounce. He’s a summer jumper really.

“He was then a good third to Thyme Hill in the Grade 2 Persian War at Chepstow on his return, at the start of the 2019-20 season, and he has won again since then - over fences at Stratford - and run some other good races.

“He probably needs to come down the handicap a bit and he’s possibly not the easiest horse to place, but he’s in great form, Jamie reports, runs well fresh and likes a flat track such as Aintree having finished a good third there on his most recent run.

“He’s been great fun for the owners and generally extremely consistent. It’s a big ask on Friday but Jamie thinks it’s worth a try and I think he could run a big race.”

Sanderson herself has been laid low by Covid-19, confined to her attic with Benylin for company and not much else, but Some Day Soon will certainly not lack for support at Aintree on what will be a very welcome big day out for the Racegoers Club members who are shareholders in him, alongside Ogilvy, Morley and Shaw.

“There’s a limit on owners’ badges but there will be plenty of us there to cheer him on,” reports Sandercok.

“It’s been a tough time for the Racegoers Club during Covid, especially during the periods when owners and racegoers were unable to go racing. We’ve tried to keep club members entertained and engaged, via Zoom and through stable visits and events, etc, but there’s nothing like going racing.

“The Racegoers Club is important to members and they are very supportive of the programmes we put on. It’s about community, the love of going racing.

“It was founded in 1968 so has been going a long time. Covid has probably been the toughest period we’ve ever had.”

Officials at Aintree will know the feeling, with this year’s National meeting the first with crowds since 2019, and will be as pleased to see racegoers and owners as racegoers and owners are pleased to be back.

This could be a big week for the Racegoers Club, for there is also the return of their other horse, the Ed Walker-trained Tenaya Canyon, to look forward to. 

“We lease her off Whitsbury Manor Stud and she is due to run in a Listed race at Bath which they sponsor [the Lansdown Stakes] next Thursday,” reveals Sandercock. 

“She won a novice event as a two-year-old and progressed nicely as a three-year-old, winning another couple of races including a Racing League contest at Doncaster.

“She’s rated 91, is said to be working very nicely and we’re hoping to get some black type.”

A five-furlong sprint at Bath feels the polar opposite to the Grand National meeting, but such variety is pretty much the beating heart of British racing, and both occasions will hopefully go with a swing for the long-established industry institution that is the Racegoers Club, and their fellow owners.

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