Flying the flag for
Worcestershire trainers, Claines based Richard Newland secured his first winner
of the new season at his local track last week. Winner on the flat, Gioia di Vita
seemed to relish the quicker ground and stayed on well to score in the maiden
hurdle under Will Kennedy.
I make no excuse for further
discussing the Worcester bumper races. The results of these are often the most interesting stories on the card
and the races themselves can certainly be the most eventful. With capacity numbers declared to
run at the course the day before the meeting, the bumper divided into two
races.
The 4 year old winner of the
first division, Last Summer is trained by Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock advisor,
John Ferguson and was ridden by the trainer’s 18 year old son, Alex. Ferguson has an impressive lifetime
record of 8 trained winners from 21 runners at Worcester, (3 wins from 5 bumper
runners), whilst Alex, who has ridden 6 winners on the flat to date, enjoyed
his first success at a jumps course, albeit in a bumper. Last Summer, who was previously
in the Godolphin yard of Saeed Bin Suroor, has a good flat pedigree and is
definitely a horse to watch when he appears next.
The second division was won by
statuesque Presenting mare, Blackdown Hills. The horse comes from the yard of Mark and Sarah Bradstock, who enjoyed
great success over the winter with Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Coneygree. Blackdown Hills was somewhat
fortunate to win at Worcester as favourite Deshan, trained in Wales by Tim
Vaughan cruised alongside her up the home straight until cocking his jaw a
furlong from home and trying to run off the racing line. In doing so, he all but unshipped jockey
Bradley Gibbs who performed amazing acrobatics to stay in the saddle and nearly
got the horse up again at the finish, despite losing both his irons. The two horses are worth keeping
an eye on. Blackdown Hills will now have
a summer break before going novice chasing in the autumn, while newcomer
Deshan, who cost £32,000 as a 3 year old, is another flat-bred recruit who
should go on to bigger and better things once he learns the job, as he
obviously has ability.
For Worcester racing fans, the
meeting tomorrow is the flagship of the season. CrownGate Ladies Day will include the Derby live from Epsom shown on the big
screen during the afternoon. The gates open at 11.30am.
