- Monday, 22 February 2016 16:58
- Written by David Pipe
The countdown is well and truly on now with Cheltenham only three weeks away and the festival preview season looming. With all that in mind I am pleased that the horses are continuing in good form. Another couple of winners on the week took our seasonal tally onto 58, although there was a certain degree of frustration as we repeatedly hit the crossbar at the weekend with no less than four seconds on Saturday including in the big races at Ascot and Haydock.
First things first though and I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to stable jockey Tom Scudamore who on Wednesday became the latest jockey to achieve the monumental feat of riding 1,000 winners under rules (990 over jumps including one in France and one in Ireland and 10 on the flat). Very few jockeys have ever achieved this and Tom and his father Peter are the only father and son ever to have accomplished this. Tom is still a relatively young man with many good seasons left ahead of him and I am sure he has one eye on his dad’s tally of 1678 winners!
Anyway, back to last Monday and the week started in the best possible fashion with success at Plumpton when Bella recorded her third victory of the season in the mares’ novices’ hurdle. She has proven a real money-spinner this season and despite her double penalty her, she won with the minimum of fuss under conditional jockey David Noonan. She will now be aimed at the mares’ hurdle qualifier at Sedgefield on 6th March and hopefully the final of the series at Haydock towards the end of that month.
Onto Wednesday and Musselburgh and Impulsive American was an impressive winner of the maiden hurdle and in so doing became the aforementioned Tom Scudamore’s 1,000th career winner. A winner on the level at Chepstow for us last term, Impulsive American has run consistently well over hurdles without getting his head in front, including at the course when third in a hot contest ten days earlier. This represented his easiest opportunity in a while and I was pleased to see him convert it to a win over the longer trip of 2m3½f – now he has proven his stamina he has more options open to him and he should continue to be competitive from his handicap mark of 118.
As I have already alluded to, the weekend while productive in terms of prize money proved somewhat frustrating in terms of results with no fewer than four of the stable runners finishing second on Saturday. Broadway Buffalo ran a cracker to finish runner-up in the Grand National Trial at Haydock under Katie Walsh and will be aimed at the Grand National at Aintree in April, although as things stand it is going to go right down to the wire as to whether he will make the final forty or not as he is currently number 78 in the line-up.
It was good to have Dynaste post a better performance at Ascot on Saturday following a disappointing effort over timber on his previous start. Sporting a pair of blinkers for the first time and benefitting from a wind operation in between, his second to old foe Silviniaco Conti gives him something to build on once again. He isn’t getting any younger but he could head to Cheltenham next month and the Ryanair will be the most likely target once again.
Both Vieux Lion Rouge and Fingertips also performed creditably at Ascot on Saturday with the forming putting up a good performance on only his fifth start over fences when second in the Listed handicap chase over three miles. He will continue to contest the better staying handicap chases and he remains a most promising chaser. Fingertips on the other hand is just a baby and our four year old did extremely well to handle conditions at the Berkshire track in the handicap hurdle having looked to be in trouble from some way out. He finished with a rare rattle for second and he should have little problem winning more races and looks as though he is crying out for a trip judged on this effort.
Earlier in the week I was fortunate enough to attend the Grand National weights launch at the Skygarden in London last Tuesday and had a most enjoyable day with the location almost literally out of this world! From our point of view there were very few surprises with Ballynagour on 11-2, Soll (who is fine after a somewhat laboured effort at Kelso on Thursday) allotted 10-11, Katkeau and Vieux Lion Rouge on 10-5, Broadway Buffalo on 10-0, Amigo on 9-8 and Standing Ovation on 9-7.
With the Cheltenham Festival now only three weeks away the Preview Circus has started and I will be attending two such evenings this year. They are normally enjoyable and (hopefully!) informative affairs and this year I will be on the panel at Exeter Racecourse on Friday before appearing at the Taunton Racecourse event on 11th March – details available through their respective websites if you are interested in attending.
Talking of Cheltenham, Moon Racer continues to please us at home. A decision on his Cheltenham participation will not be made until the week prior to the Festival to give him every chance of getting there. There is still a lot of work to be done with him between now and then but he is still in there with a shout.
There was some shock news ahead of the Festival last week when Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins announced that reigning Champion Hurdler Faugheen would miss the meeting owing to a suspensory problem. This just goes to show that anything can happen in the weeks leading up to the Festival and I will finally start to relax once the tapes go up for the first race on the first day; the Supreme novices’ hurdle…22 days and counting!
