Latest From The Gallops

Too Generous was anything but impressive at Plumpton on Monday, scrambling home by a head – not the manner in which you would expect a 1/5 chance to oblige! Even so, she battled on bravely having been headed after the last to score by a head from Grace And Fortune. I don’t think that it was a bad performance conceding 7lbs to a potentially underestimated rival…remember the second had previously finished runner-up at Lingfield, in front of one of our inmates, Bladoun and we think quite a bit of him. Too Generous is a real terrier and has now won four of her five starts – there is every reason to believe that she can add more to that tally.

Shaking Hands was another to display real guts when winning the three mile handicap chase the following day at Ffos Las. The going turned up heavy on the Welsh track and that played to Shaking Hands’ strengths as he is a thorough stayer. Making all under a positive ride from Tom Scudamore he came clear in the straight to win by 13 lengths, recording a personal best to score from a handicap mark of 119. Hopefully the handicapper will not be too harsh as he has raced from a mark of 120 in the past and has yet to win from it – this is definitely about his sort of mark, he was just aided on the day by the extreme conditions.

Vieux Lion Rouge is a most promising young horse and on Wednesday he extended his record to two wins from two starts with a courageous performance in the bumper at Newbury. Bought from the Arqana sales in July for what is beginning to look like a very reasonable €42,000 I will certainly be considering a crack at the Cheltenham Festival bumper with him. He comes from an excellent family - his dam was a half sister to a multiple winner we had at the yard, Marcel. Indeed, we have a very nice crop of youngsters coming through, including several bumper winners and he would be right up there with the best of them.

And then came the snow, putting paid to every jumps card in this country (and some all-weather) from Friday onwards. It is unfortunate for all courses affected, but I did feel particularly sorry for my local track Taunton who were planning to host their richest meeting in their 85 year history. There is talk that the meeting will be rescheduled to April – let’s hope that is the case as they may then attract some quality performers from Cheltenham Festival who are looking for a tempting end of season target. As I write the next conceivable National Hunt action could take place at Ayr on Wednesday, although with more of the white stuff forecast you wouldn’t want to put your mortgage on it!

Despite the freeze-up we are able to carry on exercising the horses as normal, this time with a little help from a novel source...the helicopter. Pilot John Darby came in this morning (Monday) to skilfully fly the Augusta 109 only a few feet above our gallops just clearing the running rails, thus blowing the majority of the snow away in a very short space of time. The tractors were then able to work up the gallops and allow the horses to exercise safely without disrupting their routine. It was a great display of skill from John to make a difficult task look very easy and we are grateful to him for his assistance. One of our office staff, James was lucky enough to witness first hand and act as navigator to John – you can see the video below.

Video 16 from David Pipe on Vimeo.

With the start of the Festival only 50 days away now, there are more early closing entries taking place on Tuesday with the Arkle Chase, RSA Chase, National Hunt Novices’ Chase and Jewson Novices’ Chase all closing. I may well give His Excellency an entry in the Arkle – he has proven to be a tough, consistent and high class performer since joining the yard and he has twice excelled (pardon the pun) himself at the track.

Dynaste will not be given an entry for the Arkle and I am comfortable with this decision. Despite his high cruising speed and his jumping ability I am confident that his optimum distance lies over further and as such he will be given an entry in both the RSA over three miles and the Jewson over 2m4f – a decision on where he runs (and remember, he already holds an entry in the World Hurdle) will not be made until much nearer the time when we can assess the strength and depth of opposition in each race.

We have plenty of entries for the remainder of this week, although plans are very much on ice(!) until we can establish which meetings, if any are going to go ahead. In the meantime you can keep up to date with all of the latest news from the yard (and his bad jokes) by reading Chester’s Daily Chat.