It turned out a reasonable weekend for our list to follow with Madison Du Berlais taking the big handicap chase at Newbury. He was backed down from 25/1 in the morning to 12/1 and clearly benefited from being upped in trip. Tom Scudamore, who has been making a habit of riding big race winners on a Saturday, did a good job to get the better of Ruby Walsh on Nozic. Back in the field Bold Bishop and Fundamentalist showed just a glimmer. The former would certainly appreciate better ground.
Our other Saturday winner was Cathedral Rock who justified favouritism at Kempton. He didn’t look much like the winner most of the way but in the end came through to win a tad cosily despite idling in front. There were also a number of placed runners from the list including French Saulaie, Locksmith and Great Approach. French Saulaie looks a tricky ride as he is a very keen type but Richard Johnason managed to settle him very well. In the end he was no match for Orcadian, who wasa probably the proverbial good thing (with the benefit of hindsight!)
I was particularly sorry to see The Duckpond pulled up at Newbury. He is a horse I have followed for some time but has had all sorts of injury problems. He was at one time talked of as a possible Welsh National type. Let’s hope this latest problem is not too serious.
On Sunday Classic Fiddle duly landed the odds up at Bangor.
Hereford is subject to an inspection tomorrow but there are no runners from our list anyway.
I will not be posting the racing diary again until Friday evening. The racing this week does not look very exciting and I need to do some work in readiness for Cheltenham.
See you Friday.
ahorse 