Kevin Ryan© Photo Healy Racing
The Strikin Viking lived up to his name with a stunning start to his racecourse career at York.
Named in honour of Manchester City hotshot Erling Haaland by owners Middleham Park Racing, the Kevin Ryan-trained youngster broke sharply in the Reg Griffin Appreciation ebfstallions.com Maiden Stakes over six furlongs on the Knavesmire.
Always bowling along powerfully from there under Tom Eaves, the further he went, the better he looked, with the 8-1 chance ultimately striding right away from the field to score by an emphatic two and three-quarter lengths over Tiger Mask.
The victory came as no surprise to his trainer, who said: “He’s been very good from the day we’ve had him.
“I told Tim (Palin, syndicate manager) a while ago that I thought he was a very good horse and I think that’s why they put the name to him, as the boys are very passionate about Manchester City.
“I didn’t hide the fact how much I liked him to the syndicate today. They have to go and do it on a racecourse, but I think he’s a very smart horse.
“He’s done what he had to do today and I’ll speak to Tim next week. You might see him back here in August (for the Gimcrack Stakes), but we’ll be doing something beforehand.”
Tom Palin, who like his father is an avid Manchester City supporter, added: “He shoots, he scores, I guess!
“There’s a lot been made about our Manchester City names and we tend to save them for horses that we think have got a bit of ability. I didn’t realise he possessed quite that much, but we’ve never had a bad word from Kevin about him, he’s done nothing but please the team at home.
“When you come to the Knavesmire on debut, there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, you normally bump into nice horses here and they invariably work out well these maidens.
“Tom said it was tough to fault anything he did in the race. He came out of the stalls great, took him there on the bridle and was a total professional. You’d hope there’s more to come.”
Considering future plans, Palin said: “We’ve not sat down and talked about where we’re going to go, obviously Royal Ascot is next week, so that’s going to come far too soon for him.
“But there’s plenty of other options – the July meeting (at Newmarket) and things like that, but we’ll have a discussion with Kevin and see where we go.
“There’s a few Man City supporters in the syndicate, so it’s great it’s worked out so well.
“Winning today is a great start, we’ve probably got promoted from League Two now and can start thinking about League One!”
