Dyna-mite!

Well, as weekends go I have to admit that we have had worse!  Gevrey Chambertin (pictured above) secured our third success in four years in the valuable Fixed Brush handicap hurdle at Haydock, while Dynaste posted a personal best with his cracking run in the Betfair Chase.  Doctor Harper and Sir Frank recorded a double for the yard at Exeter on Sunday ensuring that the good form of the stable continued.

We kicked the week off with a winner at Plumpton on Monday with Tullyesker Hill running out the ready winner of the bumper under Tom Scudamore.  The winner of an Irish point-to-point previously he looks like a lovely staying chaser in the making, although I see no reason why he cannot pick up plenty of races over hurdles in the meantime.

The horses continued to run creditably in the intervening days with Lola Galli, Bygones Sovereign and Thomas Junior all reaching the frame without quite managing to get their heads in front.  I thought that Thomas Junior in particular ran very well in his Ffos Las bumper to be beaten little over a length into third – he was only having his second start and again displayed signs of inexperience.  He is another who looks like an out and out stayer with a bright future ahead of him.

There were creditable performances too from Ace High (on his Pond House debut) and Home Run on Haydock’s supporting card before Gevrey Chambertin emulated his full brother Grand Crus and further bolstered our great recent record in the Grade Three Fixed Brush handicap hurdle.  It is purely coincidental of course, but to have three greys’ win this race in the past four years really is quite incredible!  Going into the race I felt that a mark of 143 was plenty high enough, although after this he will surely be around the 150 mark.  Gevrey Chambertin has always looked a potential chaser in the making and the way he jumped these ‘mini fences’ did nothing to dissuade me from that opinion.  Indeed, he will be sent chasing after this and should take high rank among the novices’.

While we are talking of the Fixed Brush race, I must take this opportunity to give you my thoughts on the current reserve system that is operating in big races with 48 hour declarations in this country.  I am fully supportive of having reserves on hand to run in these races, although I question the value of having the cut-off for reserves at 9am the morning before the race.  Should connections choose not to run (on the basis of ground or whatever other reason) it is unlikely they will withdraw their horses until the morning of the race, meaning the reserves will not get in.  Just look at this year’s Kerry National at Listowel in September won by White Star Line – in this country, he wouldn’t even have been allowed to race!  If Ireland can do it why can’t England?

Onto the feature of the week (and for many, the season so far) and I could be nothing other than delighted by the performance of Dynaste in the Betfair Chase.  He was a high class hurdler and translated his form to fences wonderfully last season, but until you take on the established stars of the game, it is difficult to know exactly where you stand in the pecking order.  To finish a solid second on his first run of the season in such a strong contest was a great effort and shows that we have a horse to go to war with in all of the top staying chases.  His next target will be the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day and I see no reason why he cannot give Cue Card a good run for his money – the track and trip will suit as he so ably demonstrated when winning the Feltham over course and distance last year.  Connections of some of the other beaten horses were suggesting that the nature of the track was a factor in their defeats, although we all knew the characteristics before the race started so to blame that would seem a little odd.

I should congratulate the Tizzard team for a job well done in the Betfair Chase – Cue Card was spectacular on the day and ran out a deserving winner over this longer trip.  They look to have a Gold Cup contender on their hands, although getting a horse to Cheltenham in tip-top form is an art in itself and with such a fine line between success and failure, it looks like being a wide open race this season.

The week ended on a high with the aforementioned double at Exeter.  Doctor Harper won his second race over hurdles in the manner you would expect of a 1/5 shot and he continues to look a most promising individual.  The second leg of the double was by no means so clear-cut, with Sir Frank scrambling home by a nose in the handicap hurdle under Conor O’Farrell.  Sir Frank (pictured right) has had countless problems since joining us, so I was delighted for his most deserving owners Richard Wilkin and the ‘Frankophiles’ as they have shown tremendous patience with him.  It would be lovely if he could build on this and win again for these true racing enthusiasts.

Looking to the week ahead we have two runners at Sedgefield on Tuesday – nice youngsters Heath Hunter and Ainsi Fideles, while Makadamia will be our sole runner at Wetherby on Wednesday when she takes in the EBF mares’ bumper.  She produced a most pleasing performance when a narrow runner-up on her racecourse debut at Warwick last time.

Thursday marks the start of Newbury’s Hennessy meeting, while on the same day we also have a few entries at our local track Taunton.  On Friday we put Tanerko Emery in the reopened Grade 2 novices’ chase – he ran a great race on his chasing debut and was unlucky when fifth (having been impeded) in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham.  Winning point-to-pointer Vazaro Delafayette is an intended runner in the National Hunt maiden hurdle on the same day.  We have a number of entries for the final day at Newbury and Our Father was the sole Pond House representative to be left in at the final confirmation stage for the big race, the Hennessy Gold Cup…it certainly looks like being another exciting week!

Finally congratulations to former champion flat jockey Ryan Moore who landed the Japan Cup over the weekend aboard hot favourite Gentildonna – it wasn’t all plain sailing however as he scrambled home by a nose.  The race was worth over £1.8million to the winner, so well done to him (especially when you consider that the prize money for second was ‘only’ £700,000!).