How unlucky was Miss Milborne at Fontwell on Friday....? As we had said it looked a highly competitive bumper, but Miss Milborne ran a cracker and went to the front 100yds from the line, and was going away to win comfortably, when all of a sudden she ducked violently to her right, and pulled herself up. She was then overtaken, but she ran on again only to be beaten on the line. I was chuffed and gutted in the same sentence. She had done everything so well, and looked to have won the race easily, but threw it away. Interestingly she only lost 1 kg in the race, so she had hardly even broken sweat either. As the Queen Mother said when Devon Loch did the splits when looking likely to win the National - "that's racing!"
American Ladie ran a cracker yesterday at Wincanton as well in the valuable mares only handicap hurdle. She finished 3rd, and ran her usual game and consistent race. I was so pleased as we had upped her in class and distance and she still ran well. I think we'll keep her to handicap hurdles this season, before going novice chasing next term. We'll head to Ascot in 2 weeks time with her for another mares handicap hurdle.
As you know we featured in BBC South Today news on Thursday evening, and I will post the version on the website within the week, but I have attached a link below which shows some of the unedited bit of the feature. I hope it is of interest.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/horse_racing/15593740.stm