Winning Week

 
    Mr Tambourine Man - Winner Last Week

The good early season form of the stable continued last week with the successes of Mr Tambourine Man, Awesomedude, Lady Reset and Al Roc taking our tally to seven winners.  On top of that, we were very active at the sales, with the purchase of several lovely new horses at Doncaster, so these are exciting times for the team.

Terrific Tambourine

On the track, the horses continued to go well with Mr Tambourine Man running out a convincing winner of the 2m4f handicap hurdle at Ffos Las on Monday.  There was torrential rain before the meeting went ahead and on top of watered ground, it did ease quite considerably, which would not have inconvenienced us at all.  Prominent throughout under Tom Scudamore, he eased to the front at the penultimate hurdle and soon had matters firmly in hand.  He is improving at a rate of knots over timber, this success coming from an 8lbs higher mark than when an easy winner at Exeter on his penultimate start.  We will look for something similar shortly, whilst he is on such good terms with himself.

Dude Delivers

Awesomedude continued our fine run of form when the first leg of a double at Huntingdon on Tuesday.  A multiple winner on the flat, he had shown distinct promise in two runs over hurdles last season and confirmed that promise with a facile success here.  Always travelling well, behind the leaders, he took it up in the straight and cleared right away in the closing stages to score by six lengths.  Well bought by James Couldwell, who runs the Value Racing Club, he looks to have another nice prospect on his hands.  Awesomedude goes well on a sound surface and looks capable of stepping up in class.

Lady Reset completed the double when a game winner of the 2m mares’ handicap hurdle.  Taking up the running turning for home, she was in front plenty soon enough and a mistake at the last certainly did not help her cause, but she found sufficient to hold on by a diminishing short head.  Given that this was coming just three days after a good second on the flat at Doncaster, this was another game performance from this tough as teak mare, who was recording her sixth success (flat and jumps) over the last twelve months.

There were good performances too from Morgenstern, who finished runner-up at Huntingdon on Tuesday and probably bettered that effort when filling the same position at Market Rasen on Thursday, whilst Via Dolorosa was another to finish second in the 3m2f handicap chase at Southwell on Wednesday.  He looks like he would benefit from dropping back slightly in trip.

Al Roc won for the second time this season at Fakenham on Sunday.  Our veteran chaser had some terrific form in France in his younger days and has slowly been finding his feet in this country since the handicapper has given him a chance.  He had a bit of fortune when winning at Newton Abbot last time and you could argue he was a bit lucky on this occasion when the leader, who looked to be travelling well at the time, departing four fences from home.  We did well to avoid the faller and who is to say what might have happened had the other horse not fallen.  Al Roc kept finding for Philip’s urgings and galloped on powerfully all the way to the line to score by a wide margin.  It is a long journey to get to Fakenham from our yard but there was some valuable prize money on offer and it was fantastic to come away with the big prize.  He should continue to give us a lot of fun over the summer providing the handicapper does not over react too much!

The Week Ahead

Looking to this week and we kick off with one runner at Huntingdon as Dindin contests the 2m4f handicap chase this evening.  A multiple winner in France, including in Listed company, he hasn’t attained that level of form in two outings on this side of the Channel, although that is not uncommon in these French imports.  He is another 5lbs lower in the weights and with prize money for all completing, this represents a good opportunity for him.

We have two runners at Southwell on Tuesday, Drag Race and Heure De Gloire while on Wednesday it is the David Pipe Racing Club day with three runners at Newton Abbot; Ben Lilly, Miss M and Nordic Combined.  The David Pipe Racing Club is a great fun and accessible way to enjoy the benefits of racehorse ownership at only a fraction of the cost.  Further details of the club can be found on the website or by giving my friendly office team a call.

There are no entries on Thursday for Friday for the team but it could be a busy weekend with entries up at Cartmel and Ffos Las on Saturday and at Uttoxeter on Sunday.  Keep checking the daily blog for more news of the stable runners this week.

Successful Sales Trip

Finally, we had a very successful trip to the sales at Doncaster last week and I am thrilled to have purchased a number of very promising young horses with proven form in the book.  Several already have owners, but some are still available and details can be found on the ‘Horses For Sale’ page of my website.  They are a variety of types with chasers in the making and dual-purpose sorts among them, all at a variety of budgets.  I am confident that you will hearing plenty more about them in the coming months.  If you would like to get involved, I would be pleased to have a no obligation chat to discuss the options available to you.