18 March 2017
Pendra ran the race of his life on Thursday at Cheltenham. For a horse that had been off for almost a year and then back in October spent the whole month at the vets with pneumonia, it was an unbelievable performance. It was a struggle to get him to Cheltenham in time, and then to get run out of it in the shadow of the post was gutting, but you can't be anything but very proud of the horse. Derek O'Connor gave a fantastic ride, and just blamed the ommision of the third last for his defeat. It would have give him the chance to get a breather and that would have probably seen him up the hill. Pendra has been a huge part of Hull Farm for the past 5 years and to run that race off 11st 12lbs was a great achievement.
I am sure the run will prove to be a great trial for him for the Grand National next month. Last year he proved he could jump around the course on ground that went too soft for him overnight. It meant he did not see out the 4m2f and he came home in 13th place. If the ground is a little drier this year, he really could have a little each way squeak.....
Well done to Stuart Edmonds and Gina Andrews for winning the race. It was a great ride by one of the top girls in the weighing room. Gina did however get a big ban for the whip - I do think the whip rules are a little strange sometimes.... there should either be some discretion especially in the cauldron of the bigger meetings or there should be the potential to lose a race if you have whipped a horse well over the permitted level. Under the current rules, at the biggest festivals, quite naturally, jockeys are going to try and win at all costs if they know they will keep a race and only get a small ban and fine......
