I was thrilled to see Up For Parol winning impressively on Monday at Wetherby. He had run well on his racecourse debut, when 4th at Doncaster, but he travelled almost too well that day, and didn’t quite last home. The drop back in trip looked to suit him, and he showed a good turn of foot to put the race to bed. I had always thought of him as a stayer, so it bodes well for the future, and I hope he can defy a penalty before a summer holiday, and I look forward to seeing how far he can progress next season.
Up For Parol wins impressively.
Both Skandiburg and Datsalrightgino hit the cross bar when finishing 2nd at Doncaster on the first Saturday of the month. Skandiburg was making his debut for us having shown a bit of class for Olly Murphy, but had just lost a bit of form. However, as the old saying goes “form is temporary, class is permanent”, and Skandiburg ran well to just be denied in the shadows of the post at Doncaster, and it was arguably a career best performance off a mark 4lbs higher than his last winning mark. The handicapper was certainly impressed as he put him up 5lbs for his troubles. I always think it’s harsh to go up without winning…. Datsalrightgino was runner up for the third consecutive time in the concluding bumper, and will now have a nice holiday and come back to go novice hurdling in the autumn. How he hasn’t won a bumper is beyond me, as I do think he is a very good horse. Time will hopefully show, what a nice horse he will end up being.
We ended last month with Early Morning Rain picking up some all-important ‘Black Type’ when 2nd in the Listed Mares Chase at Exeter. She was given a lovely ride from Gavin Sheehan, and it was lovely result for her owners Heart Racing and Julie Thomas who breeds plenty of horses. Early Morning Rain has earned the right to be a star mare for her Broadwell Stud. Whilst, Ga Law was a gallant 2nd in the Grade 2 Pendil Novice Chase at Kempton. He carried a 5lbs penalty and was only beaten 3 lengths, so he has run well, but the race was 5 seconds slower than standard, and we looked to be beaten by a speedier horse. I’d like to think we could turn the tables around in the Grade 1 Manifesto Chase at the Aintree Festival.
Having been lucky enough to have had a Cheltenham Festival winner with only our third ever runner there (Present View - pictured below), we now appreciate how lucky we were, as its tricky to get there with a horse in tip top form, let alone win there……
We have four entries at this year’s Festival, although we are still unsure who might run. I think Kiltealy Briggs will run in what is now called the Paddy Power Plate Handicap Chase over 2m4 on the Thursday. He has been a progressive horse over fences this season but didn’t stay 3m on heavy ground around Sandown last time, so the drop in trip should help. Anythingforlove is in the David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle on the Tuesday, but will only run if the going is very soft. She won the Grade 2 Jane Seymour novice at Sandown well, and is an exciting horse going forward with, but I’d not want to run her on good ground. Hogan’s Height is in the Glenfarclas Cross Country and the plan is for him to follow in Tiger Roll’s footsteps and go from the Cross Country to the Grand National. Our final entry is Ga Law, who is entered for the Marsh and we’ll see how he is over the course of the next week and then decide if he goes there or more probably waits for Aintree.
Below is a cracking video of Hogan flying around the Cheltenham cross country course:
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