Owner chasing another upset with Trumps Up

Owner David FitzGerald is getting used to beating the odds and Trumps Up aims to add to his good run of luck when he contests the 7f novice stakes at Thirsk on Friday.

Trumps Up made a winning debut at Leicester this month having been purchased by FitzGerald last year with the winnings he collected by backing Britain to vote no to remaining in the European Union, and on Donald Trump to be elected US president.

“I was over for the royal meeting and everybody was telling me ‘I’m voting leave’ and that they wanted out,” FitzGerald said. “I said to myself this Brexit is 5-1 and everyone wants to leave, so I had a few bets and won a bit.

“It was the same in November when I was told Trump would win and again he was 5-1, or thereabouts, so I managed to win a handsome amount on him as well.”

He added: “I’m strictly a value bettor. They were both 5-1 in a two-horse race. I do like a bit of value.”

A seasoned horse trader, whose main business is developing wind farms in Ireland, FitzGerald went against the crowd – and his own nature – in buying Trumps Up for 3,000gns at Tattersalls.

He says: “I was over for Tattersalls, where I usually try and pick up a nice filly, and just as I was about to leave this lovely horse came in and I wondered what was wrong with him as he had such little attention. His family was full of Arc winners and he was by a good horse in Cape Blanco, so I bought him.

“Luckily it proved to be loose change from the bets once the invoice arrived from Tattersalls! When it came to deciding what we were going to call him we decided it had to be something after Donald Trump.”

Trumps Up is expected to excel as a three-year-old next year, but given his connections, and how he was funded, another victory before then would surely not come as a surprise.

Thirsk Friday card