Half way through the 2017 season at Pitchcroft

We certainly enjoyed the luck of the Irish at Pitchcroft’s Irish themed race meeting last week and were blessed with perfect weather for the occasion. Traditional music from the Emerald Isle courtesy of the Wild Murphys had everyone toe-tapping between races and contributed to a thoroughly good atmosphere created by the 2,500 racegoers who came out to support the course on a Tuesday evening.

On the track, it also paid to follow the Irish. 

Of the 7 winners, four horses were bred in Ireland, and one each in France, Germany and England. Aidan Coleman, originally from County Cork was on flying form notching a treble on the night, the first race for Lambourn trainer, Jamie Snowden and the last two for Jonjo O’Neill, who himself originates from Co Cork.

The local success was the one of the stories of the night. Claines trainer, Richard Newland has always been a great supporter of his local track and this summer has sent Slim Pickens to run here four times.  The horse has been with Newland since May 2014 and first won a novice hurdle at Worcester under Sam Twiston-Davies in June of that year.

From 17 races, the consistent gelding has won 4 times and finished second 6 times. In his 5 runs at Worcester, he has never been out of the first two. In the previous 3 runs this summer he has come up against one just too good for him but has battled all the way to the line.  Finally, last Tuesday was his day.  In another exciting finish, he was driven out to beat Martin Keighley’s Buckle Street by a neck under a confident ride from conditional jockey, Charlie Hammond.  Just one and three-quarter lengths separated the first four horses home.

Another Irish jockey, Daryl Jacob had his first official ride as stable jockey to Bourton-on-the-Water trainer, Ben Pauling aboard Calva D’Honore at the same meeting. However, the jockey’s winner on the night came aboard 11/10 favourite, Taws for Rod Millman in the mare’s maiden hurdle, another qualifying race for the 7bets4free.com Fixed Brush Hurdle Series final in October.

The summer is flying by as it always seems to and so are the race meetings.  We have reached the half way point in the season and it is therefore timely to look at the leading jockey and trainer championships, both of which are proving to be fiercely competitive.

Champion jockey Richard Johnson leads Aidan Coleman by just 12 points at the top of the Cheltenham and Three Counties Race Club sponsored table. There are only 6 points separating the next 3 places occupied by Sam Twiston-Davies, Noel Fehily and Harry Skelton.

Jonjo O’Neill leads Dan Skelton and Nicky Henderson, both tying for second place in the Foran sponsored trainer’s competition, ahead of Richard Newland. We look forward to seeing how the second half of the season unfolds.

The gates open for afternoon racing tomorrow at 11.50am.

Back to back meetings at Pitchcroft deliver results for local trainers

There has been plenty of action down at Pitchcroft recently, with 2 race meeting in just 4 days.

Despite Family Fun Sunday clashing with the well supported Olly Murs on stage at nearby Worcestershire County Cricket ground and Worcester University’s open day, over 4,000 people enjoyed the afternoon of National Hunt racing, interspersed with pony rides, mini quad bikes, inflatable fun and painted faces.

The local trainers didn’t disappoint. Three of the 7 winners included Murray Mount trained at Abberley by Henry Oliver, Sweeping Rock trained by John Spearing at the Fred Rimell’s former yard in Kinnersley, and the last race went the way of Included trained by David Dennis at Hanley Swan.

The big story of the afternoon came in the £18,000 feature handicap hurdle. A very competitive affair, the strongly fancied Philip Hobbs / Diana Whateley gelding, Wishfull Dreaming went off a clear favourite.  However, in the end, the first three horses home mirrored the exact same result of a similar contest earlier in the month on Ladies Day. 

Permit trainer, Rosemary Gasson was delighted to see Mr McGuiness get the better of Richard Newland’s Slim Pickens and Alan King’s Miss Crick for the second time at the course in just 3 weeks. Both Mr McGuiness and Slip Pickens hold entries for tomorrow’s Worcester meeting.

Three days later, we welcomed Britain’s Got Talent host, David Walliams to the racecourse for the first time, as guest speaker in the Birmingham City Football Club hospitality marquee.

The local success story continued at this meeting with new recruit to Richard Newland’s Claines yard, Theo storming up the home straight to win the shakespearestone.co.uk Conditional Jockeys Training Series Final Handicap Hurdle under Abberley jockey, Charlie Hammond.

Theo was purchased out of Shane Donohoe’s yard in Ireland recently, with only fair form and a bit of a ‘monkey’ reputation according to Newland’s assistant, Rod Trow. However, the 7-year old was on best behaviour, winning comfortably and seemingly relishing the change of scene, as further borne out by his Uttoxeter win on Sunday.

Roger Hart is very well known at Worcester and on the wider racing circuit as a tipster, Corporate raceday host and an organiser of ownership syndicates. He is less well known as an owner.  However, when Fort Worth trained by Jonjo O’Neill won on the bridle last week under a cool Aidan Coleman ride, a very excited Hart whooped his way across the parade ring to greet his winner.

Fort Worth was bought by O’Neill from Coolmore originally, and has run for O’Neil under different ownership until recently when Hart and 3 friends purchased the Presenting gelding, who jumped and stayed on impressively.

Hart tells the story that the ownership under which Fort Worth now runs, Sleeping Panther Racing, took its name from the many sleeping panther statues that can be seen on the streets of ‘Panther City’ as Fort Worth in Texas is nicknamed.

With Nicky Henderson on flying form last week, posting a treble and a third from his 4 runners, we look forward to the stories from tomorrow’s meeting, due off at 2.20pm.

Looking ahead to the Season Finale

Where did the summer go! Five months, seven days and 18 fixtures since the start of the 2016 Worcester racing season, we are now approaching the finale tomorrow afternoon.

The last meeting produced a fantastic result for our charity, Macmillan. Racegoers dug deep and very generously supported the various fund raising activities organised by the ladies from Boots, resulting in an amazing record total of just over £5,000 raised on this annual day.

Earlier in the year, when the exciting news broke that Hereford Racecourse was to be re-opened, Worcester’s 6th October fixture was transferred to create the first race meeting to be held at Hereford since 2012.

The Worcester staff fully embraced the idea of helping to re-open Hereford and when the day dawned, with not a cloud in the sky, we were all extremely proud to be part of such a historic occasion.

The feeling of goodwill, everywhere you turned, was something I will remember, and going forward we will continue to work very closely with the team at Hereford and help them build on that special day.

As the season at Worcester draws to a close, we reflect on the many success stories.  The weather, which is so important to all racecourses from the aspect of producing decent ground for the horses, as well as encouraging racegoers to attend the meetings, has been kind this year. The owners and trainers have been wonderfully supportive as is borne out by the fact that we have had 49 more horses running at the course this year than over the equivalent fixtures in 2015.

The 165 entries for tomorrow’s meeting include horses from all the top yards, and the runners will be competing for £63,000 in prize money.

The races tomorrow include the annual Fred Rimell Memorial Handicap Chase. Rimell trained locally at Kinnersley and was crowned champion National Hunt trainer on five occasions spanning 25 years from 1951 to 1976. Among his many achievements were the winners of four Grand Nationals, two Cheltenham Gold Cups, two Champion Hurdles, a Champion Chase and three Triumph Hurdles.

Tomorrow will also see the conclusion of the 2016 Worcester leading Owner, Trainer and Jockey contests. With Jonjo O’Neill leading Neil Mulholland by just 7 points in the trainer’s title and Aidan Coleman currently lying ahead of Richard Johnson by a mere 6 points in the jockey’s table, it is all to play for on the last day.

Aidan Coleman with Mont Royale and winning connections

More certain is that JP McManus, who has run many horses at Worcester over the years, will be confirmed as our most successful owner this year.

The final fixture of the season has often produced horses who have gone on to achieve bigger things, and there is no better example of this than Ballyandy, who in 2015 had his racecourse debut in the ‘Newcomers’ bumper at this meeting, and went on to win the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival in March this year. 

The gates open tomorrow at 12.20pm.