Good Form Continues

I am pleased to report that the horses continue in good form and three more winners last week kept the scoreboard moving along and at the time of writing our seasonal tally stands at 44. A winner with our first runner of the week, another at our local track and a weekend winner as well meant that it was another productive week.

The stable did not have any runners on Monday but we struck with our first runner of the week when Alternatif ran out a ready winner of the staying handicap chase at Fontwell on Tuesday despite the burden of top weight. He had a string of placed efforts against his name prior to this success and was beginning to look a little frustrating but the further he went here, the better he seemed to go and the recent step up in trip certainly seems to have been the key to him with a couple of personal best efforts to his name. He is only a five year old and if he continues to improve it is not difficult to imagine him running in some of the big marathon staying handicap chases in the future.

Balgarry maintained our good recent form with a hard fought success in the 2m2f handicap chase at Taunton on Thursday. This was only his third start over fences so to win a handicap from a mark of 133 was a very good effort. He has had all manner of issues down the years, but we have always felt he was a quality individual and I am pleased he was able to show it here. Making all the running under a well-judged ride from Tom Scu, he had saved enough in front to repel all challengers in the straight to win going away. Balgarry can be too free for his own good but there is no doubt that he is a very good jumper of a fence and I am sure there are plenty of other races for him in this sphere.

It was good to get Gevrey Chambertin back in the winners’ enclosure with victory at Lingfield on Saturday. It seems like an age ago that our grey brother to Grands Crus was winning the Grade 3 Fixed Brush Hurdle at Haydock but this represented the easiest opportunity he has faced for a while and I was pleased to see him take advantage. He hasn’t been an easy horse to place with a high hurdle rating, while he hasn’t seemed a natural over the larger obstacles. We are very much at the mercy of the handicapper with him, but hopefully this success will have done his confidence the world of good and he will reproduce this sort of effort next time.

I was delighted to see sidelined conditional jockey Michael Heard earlier in the week. You may recall that Michael was injured following a spill at Cheltenham which left him with a fracture to one of his vertebrae. He was at a loose end with his girlfriend at work so he decided to come down and see a few of the horses on the gallops. I have to say that he was looking very well and is certainly moving a lot better than he had been when he dropped in two weeks earlier. Given his rate of progress it is not impossible to imagine him back in the saddle within another couple of months.

I did say that I would keep you posted as to the outcome of the Horseracing Writers Awards in London last week especially as I was nominated for the Best International Trainer. Well, I did come home empty handed with John Gosden much as anticipated cleaning up after his incredible flat season at home and abroad. I have to say that I think the right people won the awards with the likes of ATR’s John Hunt landing Broadcaster of the Year and the inimitable Alistair Down scooping Writer of the Year…congratulations to them. I had a fantastic time and would like to extend my grateful thanks to our great host Mike Vince – I am already looking forward to the 2016 shindig!

I was a little bemused to look through the programme book last week and spot a 2m4f maiden juvenile hurdle at Uttoxeter this coming Friday. A race over this trip for juveniles is certainly unusual and it made me wonder why this race had been put on? Surely if larger fields and competitive races are the goal, then this is not the sort of race that should be on the calendar. Indeed, the race was reopened after it attracted only a handful of entries and even after the five day stage there were still only six entries! If the BHA want larger fields, surely they need to consult with the trainers to find out what sort of races are required?

Looking to this week and after a handful of runners at Ffos Las today we are looking at a day off tomorrow. We will be back on Wednesday at Newbury where ex-French recruit Closer To Home is an intended runner in the juvenile hurdle, while Honeymoon Cocktail will run on the all-weather at Lingfield on the same day.

I would imagine that we will have runners at Exeter on Thursday while Dynaste could go for the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday and both Unanimite and Bidourey could run in the Ladbroke Hurdle on the same card (a race I have enjoyed success in with Acambo). As usual, we will do some homework to search for the best opportunities for our runners later in the week and of course they are all subject to last minute tests and you can keep up to date with all the latest news by following Chester’s Daily Chat.

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