- Tuesday, 19 March 2013 13:00
- Written by David Pipe
Much as expected of a 1/7 favourite, Broadway Buffalo kicked off the biggest week of National Hunt racing with a ready success in the novices’ hurdle at Plumpton under Tom Scudamore. Never in the remotest danger on this first attempt at 2m5f on soft ground, he jumped and travelled impeccably and won with any amount in hand. We decided to sidestep Cheltenham with him in order to gain some further experience but he should be more than capable of holding his own in stronger company and could head to Aintree or the Punchestown Festivals in the coming weeks. Now unbeaten in five starts and with boundless potential, he remains a very exciting youngster to look forward to.
Qalinas completed the double by recording his second success under amateur jockey Michael Heard, this time in the 3m½f handicap hurdle at Taunton. It had taken a while to find the key to him, but he has improved leaps and bounds for the step-up in trip and was recording a career best effort here by beating favourite Thedeboftheyear by a comfortable 12 lengths. I hope that he can maintain his current level of progress although he is likely to find things tougher under a revised handicap mark.
We moved onto Cheltenham on Tuesday with high hopes and expectations, yet despite a handful of favourites and a number of creditable performances through the course of the meeting we left Prestbury Park without a winner for the first time since 2009. It just goes to emphasise how competitive the standard of racing at the Cheltenham Festival is and I am sure if you asked any trainer beforehand if they would settle for just one winner at the Festival, the vast majority of them would take it.
His Excellency ran right up to his best in finishing third in the Arkle, picking up some more very handy prize money along the way. Despite not always looking the most straight forward he has performed to a high level on almost every occasion he has run this term and I would be pleased to have a stable full of horses just like him. He was turned out again for the last race on Friday, the Grand Annual and in a perfect summation of how Cheltenham went for the yard, he fell when just creeping into contention.
Dynaste produced a valiant effort in the Jewson but was just run out of it after the last by Benefficient. Nevertheless he has come out of his race fresh and in good order and could yet go to Aintree where the flat track is expected to suit him well. He remains a horse to be very excited about for the future.
There were notable performances too from Buddy Bolero, The Liquidator, Tanerko Emery, Goulanes and Matuhi. Sadly Matuhi had to be put to sleep following a horrible fall at the last in the Byrne Group Plate – he had run a blinder up until that point and was booked for a place at least when capsizing under Brendan Powell Jnr. He was a cracking little horse who will be greatly missed by everyone connected with the yard.
Both Matuhi’s sad demise and the terrible fall of J T McNamara in the Kim Muir put the disappointments of the meeting into perspective…they are nothing more than that. Indeed, our thoughts are with J T McNamara and his family at this worrying time and we hope that he is soon on the road to recovery.
The week ended on a high note for us with victory for Big Occasion in the Midlands National under amateur jockey Mikey Ennis. Our six year old was bred to win a classic and I am sure that previous connections at Ballydoyle never considered that he would be winning over 4m1½f when he was in their care! Given a patient ride by Mikey, he crept into the race going noticeably well down the far side and soon had the race in safe keeping. It’s funny how it goes…he was an intended runner in the charity race over one mile five furlongs at Cheltenham, but we decided to re-route him after producing a dour performance to finish runner-up in the Surrey National only a fortnight earlier. He could well end up being a likely type for races such as the Welsh National next season.
Unsurprisingly, the week ahead looks like being relatively quiet by comparison – we will only have one runner at Exeter tomorrow (Tuesday), although we do have a few entries later in the week. There is still much to look forward to for the remainder of this campaign with Aintree now little over two weeks away and at the final forfeit stage for the Grand National we left Swing Bill in. Meanwhile we could also have a few entries at the Punchestown Festival.
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