Horses in Form

 
  Ffos Las Winners: Itseemslikeit & Royal Mer

The horses continue in good form and it was nice to record a double at Ffos Las last week and start this one as we did the last, with a Monday Winner!  Itseemslikeit and Royal Mer were our Ffos Las winners while Only Fools got her head in front for the first time over hurdles at Ludlow this afternoon.

We travelled to Ffos Las last Wednesday with five runners hopeful of a good day and it was! We came away with two winners, a second and two thirds.  Itseemslikeit was impressive in winning his maiden hurdle over 2m4f.  He is a giant of a four year old who is certainly going to improve with time but he is not doing too badly already!  Even though he is big, he is very athletic and he impressed with his jumping throughout his win, he is very accurate, quick and nimble.  He led the field and quickened when Jack asked him for his effort and was doing all his best work at the end as he had done on stable debut at Chepstow in a bumper.  He has come out of the race well but there are no immediate big race plans with our son of Black Sam Bellamy.  He has huge potential so we shall mind how we go with him this season but he is very capable of winning another novice hurdle under a penalty.

Royal Mer made a winning seasonal reappearance on chasing debut at Ffos Las.  Bought by his owner from a claimer in France last year things didn’t quite go to plan after he arrived but a summer at grass has done our five year old the world of good and this showed in his performance.  He has always been a chaser in the making and loves soft going.  It was good everything came together for a nice win the other day.  This was over 2m4f and he will get further but it was a nice starting point and I think there is plenty more to come off his rating, even once reassessed on Tuesday.

On the same Ffos Las card, Chauffeur Driven made a pleasing hurdling debut to be third and will be one to appreciate a step up in trip in time.  Keppage also made a nice chasing debut to also be third.  He made a couple of novice jumping mistakes but on the whole jumped well before getting a little tired and he should improve for the experience.  Phantomofthepoints narrowly failed to make it a treble on the day by finishing second in the bumper.  He probably got a little out speeded at a crucial time but galloped to the line strongly and he may have been suited by a stronger pace earlier in the race.  He is likely to go hurdling next and is a nice prospect for staying races going forwards.

Only Fools got a deserved first success over hurdles on Monday afternoon at Ludlow.  Our four year old has been extremely consistent since she arrived from France and appreciated the step up in trip to 2m5f.  She travelled strongly through the race, is a great jumper and all went swimmingly until the last 50 yards where she was being closed down by rivals but thankfully she held on!  It is great for the members of our Racing Club and I don’t think the handicapper can put her up too much so hopefully there is more to come over these sort of distances.

The majority of our horses have run very well in the last week and other names to mention are Ocean Heights who finished third on the flat at Kempton on his first start in a handicap at a big price.  He was doing all his best work at the end of a mile race so we will step him up in trip a bit next time.  Royal Defender and Ya know Yaseff were both placed at Lingfield while Jilaijone ran another solid race off a career high mark at Ascot to be third.  Our four year old has a thoroughly likeable attitude and rarely runs a bad race.  We are likely to make an early closing entry for him back at Ascot in the Betfair Exchange handicap hurdle next month.  Ben Lilly got a little stuck in the mud at Chepstow but still managed to finish third while Brinkley returned to action with a close second at Uttoxeter. While I don’t like finishing second, this one was a good one, after the horses nightmare season last year it was just good to have him back to some sort of form.  This race will have done him the world of good mentally and hopefully he can build on this for next time.  There was also a promising hurdle debut from Time Interval at Ludlow to be fourth and this useful flat recruit can be winning over hurdles soon.

This Week

After a winner on Monday we now have a couple of quite days with no runners on either Tuesday or Wednesday.  On Thursday we have entries at Lingfield and Taunton while looking further ahead we have Newbury, Doncaster, Newcastle, Bangor and Leicester with entries for the rest of the week and into the weekend.  Keep checking the Daily News for the latest information on our runners.

We have confirmed Remastered for the December Gold Cup at Newbury on Saturday, the race he finished second in last year.  There are 23 entries left in the race after the conformation stage and we carry 10st 9lb and are best priced 16/1 in the betting.  He runs off and eight pound higher mark that last year so it will be tougher but he has come out his prep run over hurdles at Aintree well and it is all systems go for the weekend.  Any rain to fall at the track would be appreciated but he loves the track and hopefully he will put up another bold show.

HWPA Derby Awards Lunch

I am looking forward to making my annual pilgrimage to London next week for the Derby Awards Lunch.  Gerry Supple is my wing man again and we attend as guests of Mike Vince.  We have a good table of people which includes Patrick Mullins amongst others and it promises to be an entertaining afternoon to look forward to!