It was amazing to see just how much the ground had dried in such a short space of time, as the 69 horses contested the first 6 races of the new season at Worcester last week.
The story of the day was the seemingly easy victory of Sir Alex Ferguson’s I’m Fraam Goran in the concluding bumper, at the precise moment when his owner’s football team, Manchester United lost the premiership to Manchester City. The George Baker trained four year old saw off the challenges of Paul Nicholls’ fancied Easter day with jockey Connor O’Farrell needing to do nothing more than steering job to the line.
The newly established Jonjo O’Neill Racing Club had their first runner at the same meeting. Deed of Gift, having only his second outing, was previously placed fourth in a Southwell Racecourse bumper in February. The horse ran moderately and will certainly come on for the experience.
Local interest included Himbleton based William and Angela Rucker’s promising Tornado In Milan rallying well into second behind Philip Hobbs’ Reste Gosse in the maiden hurdle. The Ruckers also own recent Grand National runners State of Play and Cappa Bleu. Tornado In Milan’s form is promising and this will be another one to keep an eye on.
Claines trainer, Richard Newland, tells us that he has a good team lined up for the summer jumping campaign including Paddy the Hare, who was just pipped into second in a handicap hurdle at Southwell Racecourse in the week, following a few months break.
Relishing the drying ground, Jolly Roger trained in Cropthorne by Tony Carroll, made it 2 from 2 at Uttoxeter in 6 days, staying on well to take the 2m handicap hurdle on Saturday.
Todays meeting at Worcester sees the first of five evening fixtures this summer and this one features the annual Hargreave Hale Stockbrokers hunters’ chase. This has great local significance as it is the only race we stage with the restrictive condition that all the horses entered must have qualified in the West Midlands point to point area, including Worcestershire and the adjacent counties. Amongst the entries for this year’s race is the Queen’s Barber’s Shop who is a former Cheltenham Gold Cup runner, trained by Nicky Henderson. Interestingly, Punchestown run their annual Bishop’s Court Cup at the April Festival meeting, which is confined to horses owned by farmers living in the surrounding county of Kildare. Such is the local importance attached to these kinds of races that Hexham have just been granted permission by the BHA to reschedule their Heart of All England Maiden hunters’ chase, a race with a history dating back to 1907, which was lost to waterlogging last week.
With a great evening’s racing in store and sunshine forecast, the gates open at 3.50 pm and the first race is due off at 5.50 pm.
