ZENITH KINDY underlined his obvious potential with a superb and strong-running victory in the Coral Silver Maiden Final at Romford on Friday.

The £5,000 Category Two event supported the Coral Essex Vase Final at the London Road venue and, following the victory of Paul Young’s Slipalong Move last year, it was another locally trained runner who came out on top.

Trained by David Mullins for owners Vince Cooper and Birol Nadir, Zenith Kindy started his career in A4 at the London Road and success in the Silver Maiden final was a sixth victory, but crucially his first two open-race victories came in the semis and final of an event restricted to open-race maidens but with at least six races on the card in the UK.

Mullins said: “We’d actually not really thought about the Silver Maiden. After getting beat in an A3 we put him in opens at Nottingham and Oxford – he ran in the Puppy Classic and the Puppy Collar – as well as Hove and at Romford. Had he won even one of those races he’d not have qualified, but maybe those defeats were a blessing in disguise.

“He’s definitely going to be better over a stiffer four bends but Romford’s actually given him the confidence a good dog sometimes need, although it was a close call in the heats. He nearly got knocked out after crowding round the first and second bends, and it was only his strength that got him into third and another bite at the cherry!”

A winner of his semi-final, Zenith Kindy lined up a 1-2 chance in the final, a price which had shortened following the withdrawal of King Floyd, and the November 2023 son of Droopys Sydney and Queen Lilly was soon in a decent position as the fast-starting Funky Adz (Paul Young) set a decent pace up ahead.

Clearing his lines early, Zenith Kindy set about trying to chase down Funky Adz and, leading round the last bend, quickly settled the issue for a three and a quarter lengths win over his trackmate in a slick 23.84sec for the one-lap trip at the Essex venue.

“The vacant trap inside obviously helped but we like him a lot and he’s gone about it well. He’s definitely a Derby dog and we might have a look at the (Arc) Kent Plate at Central Park in March beforehand. Either way he’ll have a couple of weeks off now by way of a rest – by which time we’ll have a plan of attack.”

Photos: © Steve Nash