Horses Running Well

Our runners in the last week have run well with two winners from ten runners and three seconds and two third places as well.  It could have been three winners but sadly not, with Chemical Warfare joining issue with his rivals at the last fence but unfortunately crumpling on landing and coming down.  It is a long run in a Worcester but Jack felt he was going well and would have won!  Although a little stiff and sore, he is not too bad and has been given a nice massage by our physio on Monday morning.  With a bit of luck next time he looks capable of winning over fences again.

Steppenwolf was impressive in winning for the first time over fences on stable debut at Ffos Las.  He travelled and jumped well and won a shade cosily in the end.  He had quite a lot of runs for Irish trainer Gavin Cromwell and had won once over hurdles but he was well bought by Dare to Dream racing from an online sale.  We have given him a wind op and had shown a good attitude and level of ability at home so I thought he would run well beforehand and thankfully he did!  The handicapper is putting him up eight pounds for the win so there is no need for him to be out again too quickly.  He loves good ground and although life will be tougher off a mark of 118 I hope there is plenty more fun to be had with him over the next few months.

I was delighted to get Mr Tambourine Man back in the winner’s circle at Worcester on Saturday.  This was his first win in a while and it was great to reward his owner’s patience.  He has had a few physical issues that we have had to work through at home, but he showed signs of a revival at Ffos Las on his previous start, and it was great he built on that again on Saturday.  He looked happy from the very start in his race, jumped and travelled well, and stayed on strongly on the long run in.  We will find out what the handicapper is doing with him on Tuesday but he will still be well treated on old form and with his confidence now back I hope he can continue to run well.

  Mr Tambourine Man - Winner at Worcester

Walk of the Roses made a pleasing hurdling debut at Newton Abbot to be second.  She was returning from nearly a year off and but for a little mistake at the last she probably would have won.  She is not the biggest and the run in at Newton Abbot is very short, totally opposite to Worcester!  A good jump is essential when it is a close finish and we did not get one where the winner did, fine margins!  It was a great run on ground that was slightly softer than ideal and I am sure she will be winning very soon.

Owners, the Value Racing Club, had a good but slightly frustrating couple of days last week with Nibras Gold also finishing second.  He made his chasing debut at Ffos Las and did everything right bar win!  He jumped well and looked the winner when taking up the running just after three out but unfortunately could not fend off one late challenge.  It was great both he and Walk of the Roses ran well for these colours and they will both be winning in the coming months.

Kepagge was another to return to form at Ffos Las on Thursday and ran his best race in a while to be second to a well-handicapped rival.  He hadn’t quite been seeing out his races as well as we had hoped in recent rimes but we found him to have gastric ulcers and we treated these and it does seem to have made a difference.  He does love Ffos Las but it was great to have him bounce back to form.  He is now going on his summer holidays and I am sure he will be back in South Wales in the autumn!

Rebel Angel ran her best race to date with a third on the flat at Chepstow.  Things did not look great when she was slowly away from the stalls but she came through to challenge and looked likely to win at once stage before fading late on.  She was a big price and it was a definite step back in the right direction.  She is a multiple winner and she is capable of adding to her tally on this evidence.

This Week

While we had several runners last week, things will be quiet on the runner’s front in the coming days.  We have two runners at Newton Abbot on Wednesday, Behind the Curtain and Heure De Gloire.  Behind the Curtain won over hurdles at Hereford last time but we are going back over the larger obstacles this time while Heure De Gloire is tackling 3m2f for the first time.  I hope both horses have good each way chances.

Our next runners after this could be at Bangor on Saturday where we have Kintaro and Pub Crawl entered but keep checking the Daily News on the website for the latest information on the stable runners.

May Weather

In the month of May, we recorded 131mm of rain at Pond House, which made it the third wettest May we have ever recorded behind 2021 when 151mm fell and 2002, when 136mm of rainfall was recorded.  We had had just over 662mm for the first five months 2024, which is the most we have had in this period since we have been recording our rainfall in nearly 25 years.  It certainly does feel like we have had a lot of rain at the stats back this up.  2014 comes in second place for this category with 597mm of rain in the same period so we have had 65mm more than the next best, which is rather a lot!  It has been good for the racecourses as we have has some lovely ground during the spring, and natural ground is always better than human watering.

Cricket Season

I enjoy watching cricket and went with the family to watch Somerset’s first Vitality Blast game at home on Friday evening.   It was a great win for the defending champions and there was a great atmosphere in the ground.  They have lost their second game in the competition away to Surrey since but I am sure they will continue to do well in this format, they have strong side and hopefully I might get to another game or two I the coming weeks.