Gevrey's Impressive Debut

It was a good day for the stable yesterday with a brace of winners at Ffos Las.  All eyes were certainly on Gevrey Chambertin in the closing bumper and our full brother to Grands Crus did not disappoint, winning by 30 lengths.  With his illustrious relations, he has plenty to live up to although you couldn't fail to be impressed by the manner of victory on his racecourse debut.  I doubt whether the beaten horses are a great bunch and heavy ground can often exagerate winning margins, but he is clearly a very smart prospect and the bookies obviously agree - Victor Chandler have installed him as their second favourite for the Festival Bumper at 14/1.

It was a good day for the stable yesterday with a brace of winners at Ffos Las.  All eyes were certainly on Gevrey Chambertin in the closing bumper and our full brother to Grands Crus did not disappoint, winning by 30 lengths.  With his illustrious relations, he has plenty to live up to although you couldn't fail to be impressed by the manner of victory on his racecourse debut.  I doubt whether the beaten horses are a great bunch and heavy ground can often exagerate winning margins, but he is clearly a very smart prospect and the bookies obviously agree - Victor Chandler have installed him as their second favourite for the Festival Bumper at 14/1.

We were also successful in the first race on the card when Kazlian (pictured left) absolutely dotted up in the juvenile hurdle.  He was a very decent performer on the flat in France and he faced little in the way of opposition and duly won as he liked by 50 lengths to open his account over hurdles.  He clearly enjoys the soft ground and looks to be well capable of stepping up in grade.

I thought that Ashbrittle also put up a decent first effort over timber when finishing a close runner-up in the novices' hurdle.  While he had form on soft ground on the level (where he was a useful stayer), he wouldn't have encountered conditions anything like as testing before.  He kept going well in the closing stages and looks more than capable of going one better sooner rather than later.

Those were our last runners before Christmas, although normal service will soon be resumed with no less than eight meetings taking place on Boxing Day, while Monday's higlight will be the Welsh National from Chepstow.  Speaking of which, it looks to be a typically competitive renewal with plenty of decent stayers holding their ground at the confirmation stage.  I though that Master Overseer looked like the ideal type for the race when returning from a layoff to win a hurdle at the course on his reappearance, although he proved a little disappointing returned to fences there last time.  There has been plenty of rain and with the prospect of more to come, it looks as though it will be a real slog and stamina will be of paramount importance.

*****

I am sure that our head lad Eddie Buckley and friend of the yard Tony Lomas will be smiling this morning after Manchester United won 5-0 against Fulham last night.  Since they were destroyed by City, United have picked up an impressive 19 points in the Premiership, although City looked equally as good when winning 3-0 against Stoke.  Manchester City still look to have matters well in hand to me.