Matuhi Makes Winning Debut!

Looking back at yesterday's action, it was a good afternoon for the yard.  Matuhi made his debut for us by winning the handicap chase at Ascot under Tom Scudamore - it was a nice performance to give Five Dream a nine length beating.  He jumped superbly to win from a mark of 125 - let's just hope that the handicapper doesn't over-react and do anything silly with him.  Meanwhile, over at Exeter Arrayan ran creditably to finish runner-up to Minnie Hill - he was beaten ten lengths, but in turn came well clear of the remainder.

The handicap good thing Aegean Dawn duly followed-up his recent Cheltenham win with a smooth success at Ascot, landing some fairly hefty bets in the process.  He won nicely, but Mille Chief was also noted running a promising race (giving lumps of weight) in second.  Megastar was an impressive scorer, but trainer Gary Moore seems less than enthusiastic about the prospect of taking on crack novice Cue Card.  I was told that you should never be frightened of just one horse - I don't know who told me that, but I'm sure someone did!  Another one that I have been told down the years was "the bigger the field, the bigger the certainty" - that was MCP that told me that one, and to be fair he was normally right!

Talking of blots on the handicap, another Cheltenham winner from the weekend goes again under a penalty.  This time it is our own Grands Crus, who contests the valuable fixed brush handicap hurdle - the assessor has reacted to his success by putting him up by 19lbs to a new mark of 145, so it is not difficult to see why David has opted to run him again from what is effectively a handicap rating of 132.  Hopefully the handicapper is correct in this instance!

All eyes will be on Imperial Commander on his seasonal reappearance in the Betfair Chase at Haydock this afternoon.  It looks like quite a competitive contest, although for prize money of over £112,000 to the winner, you would hope that it would be.  It will be interesting to watch the race as Imperial Commander certainly has two ways of running - I am sure that he will be fit enough to do himself justice, but which Imperial Commander will turn up to the races today?

Finally, if you take a look at David's column in today's Daily Mirror you will have seen that he has managed to get himself a new nickname, "Basil".  As the accompanying photograph clearly demonstrates, David bears a remarkable likeness to comedy genius John Cleese of Monty Python fame.  Indeed, Cleese was responsible for the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch from his show and the Pond House handler certainly looks as though he has been practising his!  Sadly, the truth is nothing like as exciting - David was accosted by Cheltenham supremo Sir Edward Gillespie as he walked through the parade ring last weekend and told to kich a rugby ball through some uprights and this picture was the last in a series of action shots...unfortunately David missed - he should definitely stick to training horses!

Picture by kind permission of Gavin James, GJ Multimedia