It is so lovely to see Floral Bouquet in the form of her life as she followed up her Uttoxeter win in May with another authoritative win at Ffos Las last week. She is taking her racing so well now that she is older and stronger, and it goes to show that some horses just need time in order to flourish. She jumped from fence to fence at Ffos Las and won with her ears pricked. She came out of the race so well, we ran her back over hurdles at Newton Abbot yesterday where she was 2nd. It was arguably her career best run over hurdles too, but just got a bit tired coming to the last, which is understandable as she had had only 4 days since her win at Ffos Las. She can have a well-deserved break now, before we look to see where to go next with her.
Floral Bouqet wins again, this time at Ffos Las.
Most of our other recent runners have been placed as the summer horses continue to run well. We’ve a small but select team in this summer, and thankfully they are all running well as we sit in 14th position in the trainers table, with a healthy 21% strike rate.
The old boy, Between the Waters, ran well to be 2nd last week at Stratford. He travelled and jumped well, and looked to have every chance at the 2nd last. However, the winner accelerated away to win as he liked - a freak run it would appear! We did however fair best of the rest and he looks sure to add to his winning tally this summer.
No Anxiety looked to have every chance of adding to his winning tally at Southwell yesterday but a shuddering error at the 2nd last when challenging cost us any chance. We’ll give him a break now and come back in the autumn. He’ll be seen to best effect with a bit of cut in the ground and stepped up in trip, so he is one to look forward to in the early winter months now.
Redbridge Gold was 3rd behind Floral Bouquet at Ffos Las, but just failed to see out the 3m trip. She jumps really well, and will now head to Worcester in mid July for a 2m4 mares chase. Meanwhile, Beholden was also 3rd at Stratford last week. He wasn’t beaten far, and can progress again with more patient tactics.
We had a slightly frustrating trip to Hexham last weekend. Chapmanshype failed to follow up his chasing debut success on this heavily watered ground where he didn’t jump with much fluency. He’ll be able to defy a penalty on genuinely good ground, but there are no novice chases throughout July and August, so he’ll have to go back over hurdles before another go chasing in September. Whoever knows why the BHA haven’t programmed any novice chases in the summer – absolutely crazy! On the same Hexham card, Thebannerkingrebel was in the process of running a super race only to suffer a race ending error at the 2nd last flight of hurdles. Thankfully he is ok, albeit a touch sore and hopefully he can make amends next month.
Whilst its quite quiet on the runners front this month, Lucy and I took the opportunity to take the children away for a few days over half term. We discovered a lovely house in West Wales, on the coast, where the sun shone! We went out on a boat to spot some dolphins, and go ‘lobster potting’, whilst we also went ‘crabbing’, played a lot of cricket, some golf with the boys and generally had a lovely time with the family. A great way to recharge the batteries.
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