Wincanton & Hereford!

      Jurancon runs today at Hereford!
Today we have five runners across the two jumps meetings at Hereford and Wincanton.  Only Fools and Jurancon head to Hereford, while our three representatives at Wincanton are Behind the Curtain, Dances on the Sand and Johannes.  Only Fools runs in the mares handicap hurdle at 3.40pm and Jack Tudor rides.  She won impressively at Fontwell just nine days ago and is 5/2 favourite for today’s race, we race with a seven pound penalty and the handicapper is putting her up seven pounds so we are not ‘well in’ today, but she came out her last run so well and this looked a suitable opportunity so we thought we would let her take her chance.  It seems that when mares are happy and in good form you need to ‘keep kicking’ so to speak, so hopefully she has a good chance.

Jurancon runs in the concluding race on the Hereford card, the bumper at 5.15pm and Jack Tudor rides.  Our five year old won a bumper at Chepstow in December and then ran well to be second carrying a penalty at Newbury last time.  He galloped on strongly to the line and is a lovely young horse to look forward to hurdling with next winter.  The betting suggests there is not much between us and the Sam Thomas trained Rocking Man, who also carries a penalty.  While Hereford might not be the ideal track for him, I think he has a very good chance and he is very much a horse to follow for the future.

Behind the Curtain runs in the opening race on the card at Wincanton, an amateur handicap hurdle over 2m5f at 2.00pm and Martin McIntyre rides.  Things haven’t really gone to plan for him so far over this season, having fallen at the first fence on stable debut, he actually ran better than the pulled up reads at Fontwell last time.  The ground was atrocious that day and he got very tired over 3m2f and would have been place had he jumped the final fence but Gearoid Harney looked after him.  I think the trip and a return to hurdling will suit today and hopefully he can get round and give us something to build on going forwards.  He goes nicely enough at home and has a future, but I think he is best watched at 20/1 outsider of the field today.

Our final two runners come in the final race of the day at 5.05pm, a handicap hurdle over 2m4f.  Harry Cobden teams up with Johannes for the first time while Gearoid Harney rides Dances on the Sand.  Johannes won on handicap debut last time out at Taunton and is 4/1 second best in the betting for today.  He was put up six pounds for that win, but still gets a nice four year old allowance in this.  A repeat of his last run should see him go close in this.  Dances on the Sand returns from 690 days off the track and is about 10/1 in the market.  Bred by his owners, he is very lightly raced having only had three start in his life.  He has shown promise in each of those runs and makes his handicap debut today.  Injuries have kept him off games since his last run in May 2022, so it will be good to get him out on the track and blow away a few cobwebs today.  He is a lovely horse capable of winning off this mark so we will watch and see how he gets on.

Alongside today’s two jumps meetings there is an all-weather flat card at Kempton.  There was due to be racing in Ireland at Wexford but that has been abandoned.

Yesterday at Taunton, Manuelito and King Turgeon both ran excellent races but frustratingly both finished second!  Manuelito improve on his hurdling debut third to be a good second.  He still looks quite a raw four year old and I think he will improve again in time but this was a nice run and he is definitely capable of winning something similar.  King Turgeon took very well to first time blinkers, jumping superbly a the head of affairs and he kept galloping, but unfortunately got nabbed on the line by the favourite.  You can’t take anything away from the horse as he did everything right and hopefully the blinkers have the same affect next time and he can win again.

Last night in the football the England Vs. Belgium friendly game, England's last-gap equaliser spared them a second successive Wembley defeat the game finished in a 2-2 draw after full time.  Wales Vs Poland, Wales agonisingly missed out on qualification for Euro 2024 as they suffered a penalty shootout defeat against opponents Poland who won 5-4 in the end.

My favourite teacher back in school was Mrs Turtle.

Funny name, but she tortoise well!

Happy Wednesday!