Eight and Counting: Tuco Salamanca Strikes at Ascot
- Jan 1, 2025
- 3 min read
On Saturday at Ascot, our flagbearer, Tuco Salamanca, recorded the eighth victory of his career when landing the £85,000 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Dash — and giving PV our first ever winner at Ascot in the process.
Eight wins would be special enough.
But this time, he answered something we’d been wondering about for a while.
A New Challenge
Tuco has been incredibly consistent over six furlongs, but the turn of foot he has continued to show this season had increasingly made us think a strongly run five might actually play to his strengths.
It would have been very easy to keep doing what had already worked.
But the more we watched him, the more we wanted to see what that turn of foot might look like over a stiff five.
The Shergar Cup Dash looked the right race to find out.
Ascot’s stiff five felt ideal. We expected them to go hard, which would let Tuco find his feet early and, hopefully, do what Tuco does best late on.
It played out almost exactly as we had hoped.
Win Number Eight for Tuco
Jerry Chau, riding him for the first time for Team Hong Kong, let Tuco settle into things behind the early pace.
Then, just over a furlong from home, he asked Tuco to go and win his race.
The response was immediate.
He swept through to lead inside the final furlong and was a length and a half clear at the line.
Jerry never even needed to use his whip...
It was some ride, especially considering he’d never sat on Tuco before.
Eight wins for Tuco.
And our first ever winner at Ascot.
An Extraordinary Record
When you actually stop and look at Tuco’s record, it’s pretty ridiculous.
He has recorded victories over:
5 furlongs
6 furlongs
7 furlongs
A mile
And he has done so on ground ranging from soft all the way through to good to firm.
That is an extraordinary level of versatility.
Saturday was his first ever race over five furlongs. You wouldn’t have known it. He adapted immediately and produced another career best performance.
He’s given us more great days than we could ever have hoped for, and somehow he still manages to surprise us!
Credit to the Sangster Team
A huge amount of credit, as always, goes to Ollie Sangster and the whole team at Manton, who once again produced Tuco in fantastic condition.
After the race, Ollie spoke about just how much fun Tuco has been for both the yard and all of us at PV, describing him as a "progressive and hugely enjoyable horse".
He also had some lovely things to say about PV, calling us a "very well-run syndicate" and saying he’d "happily recommend us to anyone considering ownership."
We won’t pretend we didn’t enjoy hearing that. 😉
We have worked with Ollie since the start of PV, enjoying an incredibly successful relationship and celebrating some brilliant wins together. Tuco is undoubtedly the horse who best represents what that partnership has produced.
The Next Question...
We have never hidden how highly we think of Tuco.
When he produced that devastating turn of foot at Kempton on his seasonal debut, we knew we had a proper horse on our hands.
Since then, he has just kept progressing.
Different tracks. Different distances. Different ground. Different challenges.
And somehow, Tuco continues to answer every question we put in front of him.
For Pompey Ventures, a syndicate still only in its third year, standing in the winners' enclosure at Ascot with a horse who has already given us so much was pretty special.
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised by Tuco anymore.
But we still are.
So perhaps the next question isn't whether Tuco can keep progressing, but just how far he can take us...
With Pattern company now firmly on the radar, we can’t wait to find out!
More from Tuco: Seven Wins and Counting
And see just how seriously his owners take the business of celebrating!
