- Monday, 14 April 2014 15:49
- Written by David Pipe
Following on from the Grand National meeting at Aintree, I spent a couple of enjoyable days up in Ayr for the Scottish equivalent at the weekend. We only had a handful of runners at the meetings, but I was generally pleased with how things went – I thought that Swing Bowler ran an excellent race when a close fourth in the Scottish Champion Hurdle on Saturday. She was running from 9lbs out of the weights so this was a very good effort – she certainly deserves to win a nice prize and could be the type for Haydock’s Swinton Hurdle.
One who will not be racing again this term is Western Warhorse (pictured above). Sadly I can confirm that our Arkle Chase winner is facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines having picked up a tendon injury when beaten in the Melling Chase at Aintree. It is a bitter blow as his Cheltenham Festival success marked him out as a leading contender for all the top two mile races next season. It does however explain his below par effort when only third of five behind Uxizandre at Liverpool. Fortunately, being only a six year old, our son of Westerner has time on his side – he has gone home to Roger Brookhouse and will be afforded every opportunity to recuperate. That means he will probably miss next season in it’s entirety in an effort to get him back to his very best.
I have the utmost respect for the team of handicappers who have a thankless and unenviable task of trying to provide accurate handicap figures for all the horses in training. From time to time though, I have sometimes wondered how they arrive at a particular rating. On this occasion I was left scratching my head at the mark of 143 allotted to my Newton Abbot maiden hurdle winner Sail By The Sea. While it is true that he was very impressive in dispatching his opponents, the form of the race can certainly be questioned when you consider the disappointing effort of the favourite. The second was only modest on the level and the third home; Revaader has been beaten again since. A mark of 143 rates Sail By The Sea ahead of the likes of Grade 2 winning novice hurdler The Liquidator and Vieux Lion Rouge and I find that assessment difficult to comprehend on the back of this effort. Of course, he is a most promising individual and I hope that the handicapper is right, but it certainly left me puzzled at the time!
While I am on the subject of lofty ratings, I couldn’t have been more impressed by the performance of John Gosden’s three year old colt Kingman in Newbury’s Greenham Stakes on Saturday. The race has been won in the past by the likes of Frankel and there were certainly echoes of him here, although I wouldn’t be foolish to suggest that he will scale those heights. Even so, he looks very much the one to beat come Newmarket at the beginning of next month,
That is still a little way off though and in the more immediate future we will have runners of our own tomorrow (Tuesday) at Kempton (Bygones Sovereign, ridden by Liam Heard) and Exeter (Virtuel d’Oudon and Barton Stacey, Tom Scudamore).
There is a two day meeting at Cheltenham on Wednesday and Thursday and we are likely to have some runners there – Vieux Lion Rouge, Broadway Buffalo, Volt Face, Wetak, His Excellency , Dan Breen and Buddy Bolero all have entries at this stage. Meanwhile we also have a number of entries at Newton Abbot, Haydock, Plumpton and Towcester over the weekend.
Looking back to the London marathon yesterday, I would like to offer my congratulations to those intrepid trainers who competed in Sheikh Al Thani’s team for the gruelling 26 mile event. Evan Williams, David Simcock, Andrew Balding, Robert Cowell, Charlie Hills and Richard Hannon Jnr were among them and they produced some surprisingly respectable times so very well done to each of them for finishing…I feel ill just thinking about it!
Talking of Richard Hannon, there was an excellent article in the Racing Post on Sunday supplement with the master of Herridge Stables and the expectations upon him taking over from his champion trainer father. Hannon Jnr says, “The assistant is supposed to do what the trainer says, but I don’t see much evidence of my new assistant doing what I say!” All I can say is that sounds strangely familiar!
Anyway, as usual for all the latest news on stable runners and gossip from the yard, don’t forget to check out Chester’s Daily Chat or follow us on Twitter @DavidPipeRacing.
