50 Up At Ascot!

On Thursday Close House showed himself to be all the better for his recent hurdling debut by scoring at the second time of asking at Towcester.  Although the ground wasn’t quite as soft as at Folkestone a couple of days earlier, it is always a good test at this stiff Northamptonshire track.  Close House led three out and stayed on well to score in decisive fashion - he boasted very good form in bumpers and looks to have a bright future ahead of him over timber.

I thought that Our Father put up a very impressive performance in the handicap hurdle at Ascot on Friday under Timmy Murphy.  He had plenty of ground to make up from Swinley Bottom and the leader had the remainder of the field on the stretch.  Nonetheless, when Timmy asked him to go the response was excellent and he caught the front-running Shoreacres at the last before going on to score a shade cosily.  He is still a big baby who we think a lot of and he will make a cracking good chaser one day.

The two day meeting at the Berkshire track proved kind to us with Water Garden giving us (and owner David Johnson) our second winner and our 50^th of the current campaign.  He had previously won an ordinary race at Wincanton and was competing here from a 14lbs higher mark so it was clearly a good performance to follow-up under an inspired ride from Timmy Murphy to prevail in a thrilling finish from A P McCoy on Well Hello There.  Water Garden (pictured left) has certainly improved for the application of cheekpieces and the step up in trip although another rise in the weights from the handicapper will likely be on the cards, and he will need to continue his progress.

Dynaste picked up nearly £4,000 for finishing fourth in the Lough Derg Long Walk Hurdle and I thought that he produced a decent first effort in graded company.  He was ridden forcefully and produced some prodigious leaps and just for a moment after three out, I thought that he might have Big Buck’s in a bit of trouble.  However, as is so often the case Big Buck’s found extra and powered away – Dynaste faded into fourth in the straight but showed more than enough to suggest that he warranted his place in this company.  By being ridden positively and trying to make a race of it with Big Buck’s, it has probably cost us second place, although you have to have a go – if you go into a race with a view to finishing second, then you are beaten before you even start.   Dynaste could go now for the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham, although as illustrated by his fluent jumping – it is easy to see why we are so excited about him as a prospective novice chaser.

The weekend’s action has left us just short of £½ million prize money and we can look back on the first half of the season with a deal of satisfaction, and look forward to the second half with plenty of exciting prospects to come.

The week ahead will be a short one with the last racing before Christmas taking place on Thursday.  We will have runners at our local track, Taunton tomorrow, Ffos Las on Wednesday and Sedgefield on Thursday.  For more details of those keep up to date with Chester’s Daily Chat.  That should give me a couple of days to get my Christmas shopping done(!) and then we are back with a bang on Boxing Day with no fewer than eight jumps meetings taking place, while the Welsh National takes place on December 27^th.  We could well be heading off to the Emerald Isle on the 26^th and 27^th with a couple of runners – Notus de la Tour could well compete in the Grade One novices’ chase, while Sona Sasta could take part in the valuable staying handicap chase.  There is excellent prize money on offer and we will confirm later in the week if we plan on travelling across.

In the meantime, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas with best wishes from myself and everyone at Pond House!