There’s no doubt the season is now getting started properly. We’ve probably just left our first lot of runners a little bit short, but in the main they have all come out of their races unbelievably well having gained a lot of experience and should draw on that next time they go to the races.
Enniscoffey Oscar jumped and travelled beautifully at Exeter (12 October) before getting tired after the second last. He showed lots of promise, but he has been a more relaxed horse at home this season and probably caught us out a little with fitness. He has come out of his race very well and I expect he will be out again shortly.
The same applies to Majestic Moll who ran at Chepstow (14 October) in a very competitive mares hurdle. She travelled through the race extremely well before getting tired – almost a mirror image of Enniscoffey Oscar’s run. She also will be out racing shortly, as she was extremely fresh following her run!
The boys that had raced before such as Fox Appeal and Junction Fourteen (although as far as Junction Fourteen is concerned it is difficult to call his first outing at Market Rasen an actual run!), ran fantastic races at Chepstow (15 October), with Foxy showing everyone a clean pair of heels, bar one, in the veteran’s chase.
Junction Fourteen jumped phenomenally, but travelled perhaps a bit too well and paid the price towards the end when tiring to finish fourth. His jumping is exceptional and it was an absolute pleasure to watch him and it was so nice to see him back doing what he should do after two disappointing runs. His main plan will be the Beecher Chase at Aintree with a race in between, so fingers crossed we can continue an upward curve again with him.
Our biggest disappointment from Chepstow was Talent To Amuse, who went into the race looking fantastic. She clipped the top of the hurdle when sitting handy coming into the first flight and came down. She is such an honest filly, that she tried her hardest not to fall and in doing so over stretched the back of her knee, which resulted in a small fracture. She will thankfully be fine and it will heal of its own accord, but she will miss most of the season, which is a bitter disappointment for both us and her owners – Thurloe Thoroughbreds. She seems remarkably happy back at home and extremely comfortable and will hopefully see her at the races if not at the end of this season, certainly by the beginning of next.
It has been unseasonably warm and relatively dry until the last couple of days, so not having the horses quite as sharp as they should have been hopefully is no bad thing. They are just coming right, with the ground hopefully doing the same and so we won’t have to keep the horses on the boil waiting for the going. I hope the rain that should come this weekend, will make the ground safe and allow us to get plenty more of our exciting runners to the races.
I head off to America this weekend, for Casino Markets final run of his American jaunt. It is a $400,000 race at Far Hills and we are extremely excited. I think he has had a very good time while he has been out there and not sure how happy he is going to be coming back to the dreary British winter, but it will be very good to see him. I really hope he runs his race, so we can celebrate New York style!
I expect you’re aware of the very sad news that happened last weekend at Kempton, where a Racing Groom from Amanda Perrett’s yard, Kevin Dooley, was kicked by a horse and tragically lost his life. Our sincere condolences are with Kevin’s family and friends as well as Amanda’s team. Horseracing is a big community and everybody has felt this loss deeply. We are privileged to be working with such beautiful animals as horses, but the tragic incident highlights the dangers involved and the unpredictability of them.