Five Winners On The Week

I am pleased to report that as we enter the month of December the stable continues in good form, with five winners last week taking our tally to sixteen for November and fifty-nine for the season. If you had told me at the beginning of the season that I would be the leading trainer numerically at this time of year, I would have been very (pleasantly) surprised! With Tom Scudamore leading jockey at the Hennessy meeting at Newbury, there are plenty of reasons to be jolly as the Christmas season approaches!

The week started off in good style with Bengali showing her Worcester running to be all wrong when returning to winning form with an all the way success in the bumper. It is never easy to win a National Hunt flat race under a penalty so this was doubtless a good performance and there is the promise of even better to come when she goes hurdling. She is a lovely mare to have in the yard and will continue to give her enthusiastic owners Somerset Racing plenty of enjoyment over the coming months.

On Wednesday Smiles For Miles made the long journey north to Wetherby worthwhile with a convincing success in the handicap chase under a penalty for his previous Chepstow win. Our six year old was already due to go up by 14lbs for those successes, so doubtless he will be looking at a further rise when the handicapper has his say tomorrow (Tuesday). The switch to the larger obstacles and application of blinkers seems to have brought about significant improvement and we will be looking to run him again shortly while he remains in such good heart.

Vazaro Delafayette (pictured above) has proven something of a frustrating individual since joining the stable but on Thursday on the first day of the Hennessy meeting at Newbury he put things right with a clear-cut success in the handicap hurdle over 2m5f. Sporting a hood and first time blinkers he received an excellent positive ride from Tom Scudamore and never saw another rival. He had to be kept up to his work, but he left the impression that there is more to come from him. He is a talented individual and now that he has put his head in front, hopefully it will be a case of onwards and upwards for him.

Tullyesker Hill was on the receiving end of a similarly positive ride from Scu when victorious in the Pertemps qualifier on Friday. He showed real guts in this war of attrition and will continue to be difficult to beat when stamina is at a premium. We also saddled favourite Unique de Cotte who had been successful when returning from a 640 day absence at Cheltenham two weeks earlier but he seemed to suffer from that unquantifiable ‘bounce factor’. He is certainly better than this and there will be other days for him.

Our fifth and final winner of the week came in Newbury’s final race on Saturday. Ex-French import Monetaire put in a clear round of jumping to confirm the promise of his debut third at Cheltenham and I would imagine that the December Gold Cup over 2m5f back at Cheltenham (in which we also have Ballynagour and Easter Meteor) in a couple of weeks’ time could be his next stop.

Talking of Ballynagour, he appeared not to get home in the Hennessy Gold Cup itself on Saturday and will drop back in trip on his next outing. He has traditionally improved from his first run of the season and I am sure you will see a different horse next time. There were a number of other praiseworthy performances across the remainder of the week with the likes of Batavir, Kalifourchon, Home Run, Volt Face and Dell’ Arca all reaching the frame and showing enough to suggest that their turns in the winners’ enclosure are not too far away.

Looking to this week, we have had a blank day today (Monday), although we will have a couple of runners (Mount Haven and Skylander) at Sedgefield tomorrow. I would imagine that we won’t be having any runners on Wednesday, although there are plenty of entries for the remainder of the week with engagements at Leicester, Wincanton, Kempton, Sandown, Exeter, Aintree, Chepstow, Wetherby, Huntingdon and Kelso. As usual, running plans are fluid at this time as we will do some homework on each race and look for the best opportunities for those entered.

The feature race for the stable this weekend will be the Becher Chase at Aintree, run over 3m2f and the Grand National fences. We could be double handed with The Package and Our Father, who both have experience over these unique obstacles. The Package was well backed and running a big race in last season’s Grand National until (surprisingly) his stamina seemed to give out two from home. He is a couple of pounds lower and the trip could prove more suitable so I am hopeful of a big run from him. Our Father has always been a talented individual and should he take to the fences again, it is not difficult to imagine him going well too.

After a break of a couple of weeks I am pleased to bring you another of our staff interviews with Mike Vince.  In this latest installment Mike catches up with conditional jockey Michael Heard and chats with him about his role at Pond House and he gives us a horse to follow over the coming months...

Michael Heard Horse To Follow 2014/15

Finally, I would like to extend my grateful thanks to Mike Vince for his kind hospitality once again this afternoon. Together with Gerry Supple, I have spent a most enjoyable day at the Racehorse Writers’ Awards in London, a function that I have traditionally circled on my calendar many months in advance.