Tuco Salamanca: Seven Wins and Counting

Tuco Salamanca winning a £50,000 race at Newcastle on Saturday was obviously a lovely result.

Another £50,000 race. Another trophy. Another brilliant day for his owners.

And at this point, it is probably worth taking a step back and saying it properly.

"Tuco has been some horse for Pompey Ventures. Pretty much the dream syndicate horse"

Seven wins. Seven trophies. Over £120,000 earned.

And one very happy group of owners.

He has gone from an unraced £35,000 purchase, with a starting mark of 61 to running to a Timeform rating of 111 on Saturday, which tells you plenty about the level he has reached.

He has won at Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Yarmouth and Kempton. He has been placed at Ascot and Goodwood. He has taken his owners to the Curragh in Ireland, and he has now won two £50,000 races and two Racing League fixtures.

Not bad going, really.

Saturday was not handed to him either. Newcastle had not been making life easy for horses coming from off the pace, and Tuco had to challenge wide and do things the hard way.

But Tuco is Tuco.

He stuck his head down, got the job done, and gave his owners another day they won't forget in a hurry.

A huge amount of credit has to go to Ollie Sangster and his team, who are doing a brilliant job to keep consistently producing improvement at this level.

Seven wins does not happen by accident.

Neither does £120,000 in prize money.

His owners seemed to enjoy it too 😉

A small group of just ten owners have been on the Tuco journey, and they have shared plenty of brilliant days with him along the way. Several travelled up from Essex to Newcastle for the race, stayed the night, and judging by some of the photos we have seen, celebrated the win with impressive commitment.🥂

That is the bit we probably do not talk about enough.

Yes, the wins are brilliant. The trophies are nice. The prize money certainly helps.

But the real fun is the journey around it.

The days out. The weekends away. The paddock nerves. The “surely he can’t win from there? ” moment.

The winner’s enclosure. The photos. The group chats. The celebrations afterwards.

Tuco’s owners seem to have got the hang of that last bit.

Obviously not every horse will turn into a Tuco Salamanca.

Most won't get close.

But that is part of the fun.

You buy a share, follow the journey, and never quite know where it might take you.

Sometimes it is a quiet day out. Sometimes it is a long drive home. And sometimes it is seven wins, seven trophies, a weekend in Newcastle and some photos that probably say more about the ownership experience than we ever could...

And that is the excitement of racehorse ownership.

Ownership. Made personal.