How wonderfully fitting that a
local family from Hindlip, all of whom are involved in the training of their small
string of racehorses, should have their first ever Worcester winner in the
opening handicap chase of the new season, a race sponsored by
visitworcestershire.org.
Ex amateur jockey turned trainer,
Martin Weston, who formerly trained the popular point to pointer, Caught at
Dawn to win the United Hunt’s Challenge Cup twice at Cheltenham, was delighted
with Mount Welcome’s somewhat unexpected performance with son, Tom in the
saddle and daughter Charlotte, leading up.
Tom was also on similar form at
the North Ledbury point to point on Bank
Holiday Monday, steering the Rachel Hobbs trained Ice Cool Benny to victory in
the men’s open race.
After the race, Hanley Swan based
Hobbs cited Worcester’s annual Hargreave Hale Hunter Chase at the 22nd
May evening meeting as the next outing for the horse.
Another trainer having a
memorable time in the winner’s enclosure last week was Sarah-Jayne Davies from Leominster. Davies’
gelding Dresden, formerly with Luca Cumani on
the flat and also briefly with Donald McCain, was eased down to take the
concluding Worcester
handicap hurdle under Will Kennedy. It
was an impressive performance under top weight to give Davies, who had recently
purchased the horse cheaply at the sales, only her second success under rules.
Davies followed this up at Taunton three days later
when Accessallareas, also ridden by Kennedy went on to win the handicap chase.
It has been a busy week for the
Yes No Wait Sorries syndicate horse, Well Mett, who made all to take the
Worcester Selling hurdle by 14 lengths and was subsequently bought back in by
the owners in the auction that followed the race. A wise move, as three days later the six year
old came out and won a handicap hurdle at Bangor-on-Dee
on Friday.
Trained in Gloucestershire by
Fergal O’Brien and apparently totally transformed by blinkers, Well Mett’s
third outing in seven days saw him just touched off into second place in a
handicap hurdle at Exeter
on Tuesday evening.
It has been a week in which one
door has closed and another has opened.
On a picturesque sunny evening, Cheltenham
welcomed racegoers to their final meeting of the season, traditionally a night
for the hunter chasers.
At Hereford, they hosted the first of 5 Arab
race meetings to be held at the course this summer. The seven race card was the first to be
staged there since the racecourse closed last December.
Looking ahead to this Sunday’s
eagerly anticipated Worcester News Family Fun raceday at Worcester, there promises to be plenty of track
action to enjoy with good sized fields and the first Class 2, £20K race to be
run at the course for several years.
It is very encouraging to see the
levels of prize money increasing at Worcester
this year, following the disappointment of the trainer’s boycott in July 2012. With increased rewards will inevitably come
better quality horses adding even more interest to what promises to be an
excellent day’s racing.
The gates open on Sunday at
12.15pm.
