Another National Hope

It is certainly an exciting piece of news that David has another Grand National string to his bow with Or Noir de Somoza rejoining the yard for a tilt at Aintree's big one in April.  The nine has long been a high class horse who has won on no less than sixteen occasions (three of them in Grade One races) and bagged over €1.6 million in win and place prize money in France.  When he was with us at the beginning of 2009 Or Noir de Somoza finished fourth in the Victor Chandler Chase behind Master Minded - David had to run him that day, but he has shown plenty of form at around three miles so he looks to be an exciting addition to the team.  It will be interesting to see where he figures in the handicap when they are announced next Tuesday.

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Talking of handicaps, I see that the official assessor has met with the displeasure of Nicky Henderson following Ruthenoise's run against Binocular last weekend.  The handicapper has decided to raise his mare by 13lbs after she finished 1 3/4 lengths behind the Champion Hurdler at Sandown on Saturday - his argument is that he was unable to win a handicap with her from her old mark, so what chance does he have of winning with her now?  He has been effectively forced to turn her out again this afternoon from her old mark of 116, so it will be interesting to see how she fares.  The handicapper always has an answer though - if she is beaten today I expect he will claim that the race came to soon after her previous exertions.

I can see both sides however, the mare was rated 55lbs inferior to Binocular going into Saturday's race, and you cannot seriously expect the handicapper to leave her on the same mark given her proximity to the winner.  Not only that, she finished in front of horses rated 135 and 122 - have all of them run badly with the exception of Ruthenoise?...I have my doubts.  Unfortunately, that is the risk you take when you enter these horses in these small field conditions races - one thing is for sure though, I will be watching the 3.25pm at Ludlow this afternoon with interest.

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Don't forget to take a look at today's Racing Post.  There is an excellent piece by Peter Thomas about David and his Cheltenham Festival hopes - by the way, I should also wish Peter a happy birthday...he is 49 today.

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Finally, I have a couple more pictures from the gallops.  They are of recent sales purchase Close House under Johnny Farrelly, as well as Dan Breen and Consigliere.

  
Above left: Close House, and right: (l-r) Dan Breen and Consigliere on the Pond House gallops