What happens when you mix 19
times champion jockey, Tony McCoy with Prunella, the Pershore Plum Festival
mascot, Queen Victoria, the Plum Princess plus her attendants and the Pershore
town crier? The result is a great night
out at Worcester Racecourse!
The action on the track rewarded
a good sized crowd, sportingly dressed in the colour purple, with a few
interesting surprises.
We are hard pressed to remember
the last 100-1 winner at Worcester, but that is exactly what we witnessed when
the only lady jockey of the night, Jodie Hughes, rode Panache to a memorable
victory, giving Angela Clarke her first winner as a permit trainer. Beating the
11/10 favourite, Questioning, under McCoy, Panache has run 7 of his last 10
races at Worcester. The horse’s next race was a much tougher ask at Newton
Abbot last week when he ran into 4th place in the novice hurdle.
Local success at the Plum
Festival race night came from the Herefordshire yard of Venetia Williams who
admitted it was the first time she had been racing since May. Monetary Fund
made a winning debut over fences in the beginner’s chase and is now entered for
our meeting tomorrow night.
Claines trainer, Richard Newland
was on the score sheet at his local track with Discay under Sam Twiston-Davies.
The horse looked anything but straight forward to ride, pulling hard and
jumping awkwardly but he got the job done and will be better if he relaxes a
bit more in his races.
Racing has witnessed a new
beginning at nearby Wolverhampton Racecourse in the week when it became the
first British course to race on a Tapeta surface. The track has been closed
since April to allow the former Polytrack to be dug up and replaced with
Tapeta. Reports from jockeys and trainers alike following the opening raceday
were very positive and it promises to be a great asset to all-weather racing
going forward.
August is traditionally the time
of year for a short break in the National Hunt calendar. Leading into this
period, there was a notable drop in field sizes with factors contributing to
this including the quick ground and the quantity of race meetings. We were therefore
pleased to see that 113 horses have been entered for tomorrow’s Ladies Evening and
hopefully a good number of those will be declared to run. The vintage themed
event is sponsored for the first time by local companies HallmarkHulme
Solicitors and Startin Honda & Startin Skoda.
As a final note, we would like to
add that we are very pleased to see one of the most personable jockeys in the
weighing room return to Worcester this week, following horrific injuries
sustained at the Cheltenham Festival. Daryl Jacob, who broke a leg, knee and
elbow, had his first ride back at Fontwell last week.
The first race tomorrow evening
is due off at 5.10pm.
