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There were six shareholders (Phil, Sarah, Cathy, Lawrence, Rainer & Alan) and five guests at Lingfield for The Way You Dance’s debut run for Michael Attwater.  My friend, Keith Murray, who provides vehicles for Lingfield, kindly arranged a box for us to use as a base for the evening and this made for a lovely afternoon in the sunshine sitting on a terrace with a bar just across the lawn!  Michael also spent most of the evening with us.

When it was our turn to run, we headed over the saddling area but The Way You Dance was saddled late in the racecourse stables as our jockey Sean Levey was coming in from Salisbury and only arrived just in time to weight out!  He was in the paddock in plenty of time though and we were joined there by Michael.  We had decided to give The Way You Dance a fresh start and so to keep him relaxed, he was not fitted with his usual hood and cheekpieces.  In terms of tactics, Sean was told that he should settle TWYD wherever he felt most comfortable.  In terms of keeping him happy we did not want Sean to be reining him back if TWYD wanted to go forward or lead but similarly did not want to be forcing him to go faster than he wanted to.  They were soon on the track and down at the stalls ready for the race.

The Way You Dance broke well from the stalls and it quickly became clear to Sean that he would rather follow than lead and so he settled him in a share of 3rd on the outside.  Sean said that The Way You Dance seemed very happy during the race and he had no concerns at all.  Entering the last half a mile, TWYD was in 4th place but still going well and looking like he could challenge.  As they started to make the home turn Sean started to urge him forward and he was up to third, two furlongs out and took second soon after.  Sean said later that he thought he would win at that point but that the longer TWYD was asked to battle, the less likely he was to come out on top and at the furlong pole, the third leaned into him a little and it was clear that The Way You Dance was not going to fight back so Sean eased off on him close to home to finish 3rd.

Sean was very happy with the run and felt that on ability, The Way You Dance was probably the best horse in the race, but said that he was clearly thinking about things a bit more than would be ideal.  He felt that it would be good to keep giving him things his own way as much as possible to help build his confidence.

Michael was also happy with the run and hoped that the run will have increased The Way You Dance’s confidence for next time.