Lord Shiva is a newcomer to Mitchell Pateman’s stable but is fast becoming one of his favourite horses after treating his rivals with disdain in another Belmont win on Wednesday.
The Playing God gelding won the Fimiston Handicap (1000m) by 4 ¾ lengths, but the margin was immaterial with jockey Holly Watson in cruise control over the last 150m.
Sent out the dominant $1.70 favourite, Lord Shiva had control of the race from the start and gave punters nothing to worry about in an imperious front running display.
Leading throughout, Lord Shiva defeated Strictly Cash and Hezangelic, to make it two from two and remained undefeated since becoming a member of Pateman’s team.
The four-year-old is a welcome addition to Pateman’s Ascot set up after kicking of his racing tenure under the guidance of leading trainer, Adam Durrant beforehand.
Pateman thinks he’s landed a good one in Lord Shiva and predicts he won’t be running around in midweek company in the near future.
“I think he’s the real deal,” Pateman said.
“I’ve got the equimetre, which I’ve had for a couple years, and I’ve got a pretty good data base and everything he does is strikingly similar to Almighty Class.
“Coming to a mid-week I thought he would be pretty hard to beat.
“He’s a really nice horse with a nice action; I really like him.
“He’s a typical Playing God, when they show you at home, they are good they are good.
“There’s not a lot around, but we won’t be coming back for the mid-weeks.”
Pateman was quick to sing the praises of Watson, who has done a mountain of work behind the scenes educating Lord Shiva to relax and keep calm.
She was unavailable to ride Lord Shiva in his stable debut two weeks back, but she was quick to grasp the opportunity for the first time officially today.
“Obviously he had been working really good at home,” Watson said.
“We knew he had it there and he just had to produce it at the races.
“He is a really nice horse and hopefully he has bigger and better things in store for him.
“Now we can head to a Saturday.”
Almighty Class won three races for Pateman, the peak coming in the Max Simmond Stakes (1000m).
Another son of Playing God, he ran a short-neck second to gun mare Super Smink in the Belgravia Stakes (1200m).
Julio Santarelli