6 February 2017
Loose Chips also ran a great race to be second down at Sandown - he has now won over £40,000 this season and at eleven years young, he is running better than ever....
But the weekend belonged to the Musselburgh team. We went up there knowing that all the horses had good chances, but they were in competitive races and I would have been happy with just one winner. Before I talk about the horses, you have to congratulate Musselburgh racecourse - Harriet Graham and her groundstaff for producing great ground and the Bill Farnsworth the Chief Executive for putting on a fabulous two day meeting with exceptional prize money. The only worry for me is that with such good money on offer, even more Southern trainers will make the trip and make it harder for me to win races there in the future!!
Forth Bridge got the ball rolling in great style in the Listed Scottish Triumph hurdle. Off his handicap mark of 125, it was supposed to be an impossible task with two 140+ horses in the race. However there were big holes in both of their form - we have a 120 mare who was upsides Project Bluebook when she fell and I think she might have won that day. He is certainly not a 20lbs superior horse than her, so I though he had a right chance. Noel Fehily gave Forth Bridge the perfect ride and wound the pace up from the front. I know he only won by a length, but it was a shade cosily in the end. He is a real galloper, so Musselburgh is not the ideal racecourse for him and a stiffer test of stamina is really what he wants. I am sure he will confirm that form if he reopposed any of the horses again. I will see what the handicapper says and then I can work out where he will go next.
Yesterday, Tree of Liberty got the day off to an excellent start with a comprehensive win in a 2m4f Novice hurdle. Brian Hughes gave the horses a superb ride and stole the race turning into the home straight. Off a mark of 123 it was about time the horse won his race. He will only improve and he will make a very good chaser in time as he jumps brilliantly.
Monbeg Charmer completed yesterday in fine style by winning the Albert Hurdle trial. Under another fine ride by Brian Hughes, he won very nicely despite 'blowing up' at the second last hurdle. People have asked whether he will now go to Cheltenham. To answer simply, I would say possibly..... However he got very wound up in the preliminaries and we will definietly handle him differently next time he runs, but I worry that it might be all too much at Cheltenham this season,....
Our two non-winning runners at Musselburgh ran with great credit. Azure Fly was a very game third in the innaugral Edinburgh National. Turning into the home straight I thought he might win, however he was just run out of it to be third. He is ultra consistent and now deserves to win a nice prize this season and he may head to Huntingdon next for the Cambridgeshire National. Quieto Sol was fourth in his race and was arguably the unlucky horse from our trip. He got into an awful amount of trouble in running and, in Brian Hughes words:"he got beat less far than he got hampered...."
We might have had a few nice winners over the weekend, but we need to hold onto that form going forward. We will not have too many runners this week especially while the ground remains so soft, however Snow Leopardess, Abbotswood and Shanroe in Milan are all nice horses and have entries in various Novice Hurdles.....
