With -9 this morning, and the cold snap looking set in for a moment, it’s a good time to write up my blog. It was lovely to see Redbridge Gold improve to win her bumper in good style at Doncaster last weekend. Having won an Irish Point, she was 2nd on debut for us in a Carlisle bumper, where the form had worked out quite nicely. Gavin Sheehan gave her a wonderful ride, and she won going away from a competitive field. We’ll now aim her for the Listed Mares Bumper at Sandown in early March.
Redbridge Gold wins her bumper.
Talking of that Listed Bumper at Sandown, that is exactly where Shantewe will go after she picked up some valuable black type when finishing 3rd in the Listed contest at Market Rasen. She won her bumper impressively at Wetherby earlier this season, and it’ll be interesting to see the pair meeting at Sandown. Early Morning Rain stepped up on her bumper debut to be 2nd at Taunton earlier this month under Sam Twiston-Davies. I was pleased with the improvement she is showing, and think she is another youngster who can win her bumper before progressing. We seem to have a strong team of bumper horses this season which bodes well for the future.
Whilst the bumper horses are performing well, so too are the novice hurdlers. Dual novice hurdle winner, Thistle Do Nicely finsihed 2nd under his double penalty at Wincanton a couple of weeks ago, where he ran with huge credit. We’ll step him up in trip and look to win a handicap with him now and he could then head to the Festival where he may run in the Ballymore. I was thrilled to see Manofthemountain finish 2nd in a novice hurdle last week. Being Fact of the Matter’s half brother, he is bound to improve for a fence and going up in trip in time. Another novice hurdler who I was pleased with this month was Grange Ranger, who was 4th at Fontwell having had 630 days off the track. He will undoubtedly improve for the run and I look forward to seeing him develop over the next few months. Meanwhile, another to hit the cross bar this month was hat trick seeking Midnight Chill. He was outpaced on the quicker ground around Leicester, but should get back to winning ways back on softer ground in the coming weeks.
With a lack of racing this week due to the cold snap, we took the opportunity to take three babies away for a racecourse gallop at Lingfield. I was impressed with Legends Ryde, who was pretty green, but galloped on strongly and could be on target for the £50,000 DBS Bumper at Newbury in March. Meanwhile, Lyrical King should plenty of ability and should be able to win a bumper in the next few weeks. He is closely related to Midnight Chill, and from the family of Dubacilla. Whilst, Richie Valentine showed plenty of speed and being a half brother to a 3-time bumper winner, I’d like to think he can win a bumper before progressing.
Three youngsters having a spin around Lingfield earlier this week.
I am thrilled that we have been sent a couple of new horses over the last month as well. Lakeside Pearl is a sister to a good horse of ours called Presenting Pearl, and she has been sent over from Ireland for lease. She will be one to go straight handicapping with as she looks to be off a mark we can exploit. Whilst another new horse is a mare called Charmond by Grape Tree Road out of a sister to a 5-time winner. We’ve also acquired Falcons Fall who is here for sale. He is a big, scopey 8 year old who won a handicap hurdle off 115 and was rated 120…..but is now a mere 102, so he looks very well handicapped and could be a bit of fun.
Well handicapped Falcons Fall has been sent here and is for sale.
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