- Monday, 20 April 2015 09:57
- Written by David Pipe
Despite only having a few runners last week it was satisfying nonetheless to see the horses holding their form. With a squad of around 100 horses in training at any one time it is extremely difficult to keep every inmate healthy at all times, although I think the whole team have done an excellent job of managing this and with only a week of the current campaign remaining, it goes a long way to explaining our fantastic total of 114 winners.
Sadler’s Gold (pictured above) was our first winner of the week when breaking his duck in good style in the maiden hurdle at Exeter on Tuesday. He has always shown plenty of ability at home and ran a promising race at Newbury on his previous outing when he seemed to find the trip too far behind a useful subsequent winner. As well as a drop in trip, the Exeter race also represented a drop in class and he gave jockey Tom Scudamore few anxious moments as he scored at the third time of asking. He was not at all inconvenienced by this faster surface and now he has managed to get his head in front I am hopeful that he will be able to continue improving. Given his ability to handle the ground, I would imagine that he will be kept going through the summer and we will look to find another opportunity for him shortly.
Earlier in the day the hitherto frustrating Classical Art showed himself to be once again a reformed character (I hope!) by finishing a very close second in the 2m1f handicap hurdle under conditional jockey Michael Heard. He had managed to get up on the line to force a dead-heat at Taunton the previous week and on this occasion he went down by just a short-head in a driving finish. He is another that seems to have benefitted from a faster surface and he will be running again very shortly while he remains in such good heart.
We only had three runners during the course of Cheltenham’s final fixture of the season on Wednesday and Thursday and while drawing a blank, I was encouraged by the performances of Alternatif and Twentytwo’s Taken. Alternatif stuck on well to finish runner-up in a very competitive handicap hurdle behind an extremely well-treated rival while Twentytwo’s Taken finished fourth in the Listed mares’ novices’ hurdle. She has plenty of ability and will be seen to better effect when we are able to curb her enthusiasm during the early part of her races.
On Saturday we sent five runners on the long journey up to Ayr for the Scottish National fixture and I was delighted by the performance of Amigo in the big race. Clearly relishing the good ground, he ran a stormer to finish fourth under Conor O’Farrell – he has been running well in the main this season without getting his head in front and he richly deserves to pick up a nice prize before too long. On the other hand, the ground was a little too lively for Broadway Buffalo who nonetheless ran with credit in sixth. He has had a long and productive season and he will head off on his holidays shortly.
It is hard to believe that the week ahead will be the final one in the riding career of legendary twenty times champion jockey A P McCoy. Needless to say, the racecourse is going to seem a surreal place without the presence of the greatest jockey ever to have mounted a horse. I have been privileged to play a small part in his career and to have known him personally and much as I will miss seeing his genius in the saddle, I will not be sorry that we are no longer competing against him! Of course, I am only joking and I am sure everybody will join me in wishing the champ a long and happy retirement. Racing will be much the poorer for his decision to call it a day - he has been a wonderful ambassador for our sport and hopefully he will choose to continue to be heavily involved in one way or another.
The big race of the week is the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown and I hope to run Cheltenham Festival winner The Package. It was a shame that he narrowly missed the cut for the Grand National, although it does mean that he goes to Sandown a relatively fresh horse and he will appreciate the sound surface. The meeting provides a great crossover between the end of the jumps and the start of the flat season proper with their mixed meeting. Even so, there is no rest for the wicked and fans of the jumps should not be dismayed – the new season starts the following Wednesday at Cheltenham!
