There
are plenty of plans you can put in place to achieve a successful raceday. The one aspect over which you will never have
control and which can alter the dimensions of the day, is the weather. A
good example of this resulted in a number of non-runners at last week’s
Worcester meeting, when the forecast heavy rain completely bypassed the course. The
drying conditions suited some horses but not all. One trainer who was delighted with the Good
to Firm Going was Robin Dickin.
The
inform Alcester trainer sent Myroundoryours, who had never previously been
placed in his races, to win his first attempt over fences under Charlie Poste. According
to Dickin, the horse is not easy to train and came to Worcester on the back of a
training regime including three ten minute canters a day, rather than any fast
gallop work. Different tactics on the
day, with the horse leading from the front rather than being held up as
previously, also contributed to his success.
At
this early point of the new National Hunt season, champion Richard Johnson
already leads the jockey table ahead of Sam Twiston-Davies and Aidan Coleman. Johnson
began the defence of his Worcester title with a win last week on Castlemorris
King. The
Brian Barr trained gelding saw off the challenges of the previous week’s
winner, Fountains Blossom, to get his nose in front by 5 lengths. The horse was subsequently claimed after the
race by David Pipe for £10,000.
We
are closely monitoring our winning owners this year and look forward to
crowning Worcester’s leading owner/s at the end of the season. Thoonavolla,
trained at Hindlip by Tom Weston is now 2 wins from 2 meetings at the course,
elevating his owning syndicate, the Troubled Pink Partnership to the top of the
table at this early stage.
Lady
jockey, Paige Fuller showed her strength in the saddle against her male
counterparts at Pitchcroft, when steering her mother’s Carrigkerry (pictured) to victory
in the handicap hurdle. It was the
horse’s first run for trainer, Jamie Snowden. The
9 year old, who was bought as an unraced 5 year old by the Fuller Family, had
solid form in his previous runs in point to points and hunter chases, the most
recent of which was a second place at Newton Abbott to subsequent winner, Maxi
Chop. Fuller’s
success aboard Carrigkerry was all the more impressive as the jockey fractured
her back in a fall in February and the horse broke his hip two years ago.
Hunter
chasing will be at the forefront of our minds tomorrow evening, when the opening
race will be the annual Hargreave Hale Hunter Chase for horses who have current
season Hunters Certificates with one of the West Midlands Area hunts. Twenty
eight entries for the race should determine a competitive field for the curtain
raiser of what promises to be an exciting evening of racing at Pitchcroft. Gates open at 3.50pm.
