With 12 race meetings at
Pitchcroft in 12 weeks, it was time for short break to rest and refresh the
track ready for the remaining 8 meetings, the first of which is tomorrow
evening.
During the rest period the track
has been vertidrained to allow moisture to penetrate and ease compaction, and a
seaweed dressing has been applied to strengthen the turf.
Before the break, we enjoyed 2
meetings in quick succession from which a number of things stood out.
The first was a day of double for
trainers Donald McCain and Richard Newland, with horses ridden by Will Kennedy
and Sam Twiston-Davies respectively, the latter riding his 800th
winner of his career on the day.
McCain sent out Court Dismissed
and Thyne for Gold to win the first 2 chases at odds of 12-1 and 8-1. By contrast, Newland’s runners, Mr Caffrey
and Lovato were sent off at 6/4 and 7/4 favourites, both following up on last
time out wins.
At the second meeting, horse
number one in race one was the 2015 Cheltenham Festival Stayers Hurdle winner,
Cole Harden. The horse first ran at
Worcester in August 2013 when he won a National Hunt flat race. In total, he has run in 24 races under rules
and has won or been placed in 18 of those.
Unfortunately, chasing does not seem to be his game however, as he has
now been beaten at odds on in all 3 runs over fences.
Ten-year old, former Worcester
winner Ginger Fizz, trained by Ben Case was 4 years older than any of her
rivals in the mare’s handicap hurdle. Defying the age difference, she beat regular runner at Worcester,
Solstalla by 5 lengths under Daryl Jacob who had flown in from France to ride
the mare en route to the Galway festival.
We have now had time to digest
the recent publication of the 2018 fixture list. This features a record of 1,508 meetings, 11
more than in 2017, and includes 19 fewer afternoons, but 30 additional evening
meetings.
There will be a week-long break
for jump racing after the 2017/2018 finale meeting at Sandown in April. The first day of the new season will be at
Uttoxeter on Saturday 5th May and Worcester’s season will begin on
Thursday 10th May.
We will have 20 fixtures with
very little change to the day/evening, weekday/weekend split. The annual Ladies Day, always the best
attended fixture, will be on Saturday 2nd June.
We will also feature a very
special and unique raceday in 2018, when we look forward to celebrating 300
years of racing at Pitchcroft!
Throughout the year, we will be
recalling many fascinating events, races, horses and personalities from our
colourful 300-year history, all of which are currently being recorded in a must-read
book to be published in the spring of next year – more details to follow as we
approach 2018.
The gates open for racing tomorrow
at 3pm with the first race due off at 5pm.
The card will feature a novelty hobby horse race in aid of Muscular
Dystrophy at 5.40pm.
