There were 5 winners from our list to follow on Saturday.
Apart from a Kauto Star style blunder Gungadu jumped well enough to clock his 4th success of the campaign. Ruby Walsh is as good as any jockey when it comes to staying on board when his mount makes a mistake.
Monet’s Garden returned to form after his poor showing in the King George. Connections put the improvement down to a change in his pre race preparation.
With the benefit of hindsight Straw Bear was the obvious choice to beat Afsoun in the Kingwell Hurdle. After all he ran Champion Hurdle favourite Detroit City close the other week and Afsoun did not have form to match that. Wincanton on soft ground represented optimum conditions for Nick Gifford’s star.
Over in Ireland New Mill put himself back in the Cheltenham Champion Chase picture with a win over hurdles.
I was keen on the chances of Beau Michel yesterday and he obliged at rewarding odds of 8/1. The price owed much to the fact that he was Barry Dennis’ “Bismarck” on Channel 4’s Morning Line programme. In fairness though he was a bit lucky to collect as the likely winner Golden Bay was a faller at the penultimate flight of hurdles.
Looking forward to tomorrow there is jumps racing from Carlisle and Market Rasen. There are no runners from our list but there are a few points of interest nonetheless (if you look hard enough for them!)
Len Lungo’s Brooklyn Breeze returns after a leg injury in the 2.45 at Carlisle. A 10 year old now Brooklyn Breeze has been a good servant for his stable winning 7 races. This track and distance are probably about right for him but he is likely to need the run after his lay off. He is best on good ground.
His former stable companion Carapuce is also in the line up. He was once runner up in the Swiss Derby (not many people know that!) Like Brooklyn Breeze, he is a course winner. Zeitgeist’s biggest career win was in the Old Newton Cup on the flat at Haydock when he was trained by Luca Cumani. He is owned by Andrea and Graham Wylie these days but has not really lived up to expectations over timber. He is unlikely to relish heavy ground.
Moyne Pleasure has had a busy career with around 75 starts (well, almost – he refused to start once on the flat). He has won 14 times, and although a lot of these were on the all weather he has won 3 times over hurdles for his current trainer/jockey combo, with Kenny Johnson riding for his father.
Lord Mayor used to be trained on the flat by Sir Michael Stoute. I remember Kieran Fallon swooping late on his to land a valuable handicap at Epsom a few years back. He has obviously gone down hill since then though as he was claimed for £6,000 after finishing lame in last place when favourite for 1m1f seller at Lingfield in September. For those who are interested in such trivia his dam was a half sister to L’Affaire Monique who was a winner for Stoute and his grand dam was a half sister to a St Leger winner. Lord Mayor runs in the 1.30 at Market Rasen.
In the bumper at 4.45 Theatrical Moment is likely to be hard to beat.
See you tomorrow.
ahorse 