- Monday, 05 September 2016 14:31
- Written by David Pipe
We had a great start to last week with a double on the Bank Holiday Monday card at Cartmel taking our seasonal tally to 18 winners and consolidating our lead at the top of the trainers’ championship at this early stage. With a number of other creditable performances during the remainder of the week it is encouraging to have the string in good order and building the foundations for the season ahead.
We travelled up to Cartmel for their two day Bank Holiday fixture during the early hours of Saturday morning and I was pleased to hear that they made it through the traffic with relative ease given the horrific predictions for our roads. The long journey was made well worthwhile when we landed the feature hurdle and chase races with a couple of recent acquisitions from the John Ferguson dispersal sale.
Indeed, both Father Edward and Ennistown (who was offered on our horses for sale page only recently) are looking like value purchases following these successes and are exciting prospects for the future. Father Edward, who had participated in a handful of chases last season was making his Pond House debut in the handicap chase over 3m1½f and he saw the longer trip out well, taking Tom Scudamore to the front at the third last and pulling well clear to record an emphatic victory. He is only seven years old and with only sixteen career runs to date, he is entitled to improve yet further. It will be interesting to see what the handicapper makes of this performance but this fine, big gelding could be a National type for the future.
Later on the card Ennistown (pictured above) produced a deeply impressive in the 3m1½f handicap hurdle, winning with any amount in hand. He had run a promising race when third at Newton Abbot over 2m5½f leaving the impression that he would appreciate an even greater test…and so it proved. He saw the trip out in fine style and we will have to start looking at some of the better staying contests for him. In the meantime he could well participate in the Cesarewitch on the level at Newmarket next month. Rated 100 on the level and guaranteed to get in, he is untried beyond 1½ miles on the flat, although his Cartmel success suggests the longer trip could be just what he needs. High class hurdler Starchitect is also an intended runner in the race, as is Low Key who was sent off favourite twelve months ago.
Ex-French recruit Dauphine Ereine, a half-sister to stable star Dynaste made her debut for the stable earlier on the card and while she was unable to justify favouritism she ran a promising race in the 2m5f handicap chase nonetheless. Only a four year old, she is still a novice over hurdles and fences despite three successes over the larger obstacles. There is an excellent programme for mares nowadays so opportunities should not be hard to find.
On Wednesday Houston Dynimo rolled back the years with a brave second in the long distance handicap chase, suggesting that something similar is still within the compass of the evergreen veteran, while on Thursday Skylander was very unfortunate not to land the staying handicap hurdle. Conditional jockey Michael Heard made a remarkable recovery following a mistake at the fifth flight which saw him with both legs on the same side of the saddle. With Skylander failing by only a head to reel in the winner he has to be considered an unlucky loser and he could turn out again at Uttoxeter on Wednesday.
The week ahead looks like being a quiet one with no runners at Perth today, although we do run Iniciar (Daryl Jacob) and Awesome Tunes (Tom Scudamore) at Worcester tomorrow. Meanwhile the aforementioned Skylander could be the last runner of the week on Wednesday after which there is yet another gap in the programme with jump racing resuming next Monday…I won’t go into that again!
Finally, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Dr Adrian Nolan (pictured below,left) last week. Adrian was a successful owner who had a very good horse with my father in the late 80’s/early 90’s called Chatam who won many good races including the Cathcart at the Cheltenham Festival and a Hennessy Gold Cup. Thoughts are with his wife Ana, son Luke and daughter Tara.
