RAGAMUFFIN brought a lot of joy to his large ownership group when taking out the Johnny Neil Ltd Rating 60 1600 meter event at Hawera 21st of April in the hands of jockey Craig Grylls – it had been a long time between drinks for Ragamuffin, who had not greeted the judge since March 30th 2022. In his early career he had won twice from his first four starts, but subsequently had had a long period away from the track after post surgery complications and had been to the races 15 more times before producing his third career win at Hawera.  Drawn midfield Grylls bounced Ragamuffin away from the gates nicely, using up a bit of petrol to get to the lead and over to the rail, but then was happy to hand up the lead to You’ll Do and was content to lob along in second place – challenging on the turn Ragamuffin hit the lead at the top of the straight and was a dominant winner, going to the line with a two length margin in a time of 137.12 on a Good 4 surface and returned $2.80 and $1.40 on the New Zealand TAB

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Ragamuffin was having his second start from the stable of Robbie Patterson, after having previously been trained by Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson of Te Akau Racing Stables. Patterson was on course and was naturally pleased to get a quick result for his new charge. “It’s always a bit of a challenge to take on a new horse from another stable and to get to know its personality and quirks, but Ragamuffin has settled in very nicely with us, produced a good effort over 1400m at Woodville recently to run third and we figured that stepping up to 1600 would be ideal and the addition of the blinkers seemed to work very well also – he didn’t beat much today but clearly he is a galloper with some good ability and I think he could be in for a profitable late autumn/winter of racing.  Congratulations to John Galvin and his Fortuna team of owners – Ragamuffin is the first horse we have trained for John and it’s great to get a result for the Fortuna team”

“Ragamuffin” – Hawera 21st April 2024 – Craig Grylls aboard

Savouring the 3rd individual winner in eight days for his Fortuna Team, John Galvin was on course at Hawera to witness Ragamuffin’s win along with a small number of his large ownership group and was a very happy man after the race “It was very satisfying to get this win today – Ragamuffin had showed quite a bit of ability in his early career, but in April 2022 he required some knee surgery, developed some complications from that, was away from racing for over 12 months and since his return it has taken him a while to get back to form, but his previous two starts leading into this race were very good and today he got the job done in stylish fashion for his ownership group. Well done to Robbie Patterson who has only had the horse for about three weeks – he’s got to know him very quickly and has done a great job with him – lovely ride by Craig Grylls, who as we know, is one of New Zealand leading jockeys and who has a fabulous strike rate riding for the Patterson stable. And well done to his ownership group who have been extremely patient over the last couple of years waiting for Ragamuffin to come back into form”

Owned by the Fortuna Ragamuffin Syndicate – an Ownership group of 37 individuals, Ragamuffin was purchased by David Ellis CNZM on behalf of Fortuna Racing for $80,000, from the draft of Lilywhites Lodge, at the NZ Bloodstock 2020 Ready To Run Sale