15 November 2021
A busy weekend of racing started off with The Mighty Arc putting in a tremendous performance to win comfortably at Worcester. His jumping with superb for his chasing debut and he travelled well under Sean Quinlan. We are delighted for his owners Leon & Thornton families, and hope for plenty more fun days out with ‘The Arc’. Carlow Farmer also ran at Worcester; however, it looks as though he has lost his confidence over the bigger obstacles and therefore, he never ran a race. We will look to run him in a maiden hurdle next time out and hope for a much improved performance.
On Friday we also had two runners at Cheltenham. The atmosphere was incredible, and it was great to see everyone out having lots of fun, as well as watching some top class racing. Glencassley ran in the Grade 2 Novice Hurdle, which we knew would be a big step up in class in comparison to what he has ran in. He ran well to finish 5th, but there is still lots for him to learn and we have not seen the best of him yet! He is a lovely big horse and in time will make a fabulous staying chase. Maninsane put up a smart performance in the Handicap Hurdle under Paul O’Brien, it looked as though he just wondered a bit in front at times, and got caught on the run in. However, he stayed on well and finished strongly. Despite coming 8th, he was actually only beaten 4 or so lengths.
After the racing at Cheltenham, we headed to the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale. That was great to see so many people back, and trade was strong which was disappointing for us as we couldn’t afford them all! However, we did come back with two lovely looking horses that we can’t wait to see on the track in the near future – Everyonesgame and Hector Javilex.
Saturday saw Just Your Type finish 2nd at Uttoxeter. He made a bad mistake two out, which could have potentially cost him the race. However, he did battle back from this and ran a great race under Will Kennedy. No No Tango was making his racecourse debut at Uttoxeter and put up a pleasing performance. No No Tango can get rather stressed at home, so we were trying to keep a lid on him at the races. The two false starts resulting in a standing start was not ideal, however he coped with it well. He settled nicely and ran a really good race to finish 6th and we look forward to seeing him progress.
Fontwell was on Sunday where Almazhar Garde took to the Southern National and Nightfly ran under Johnny Burke. Nightfly probably didn’t like the figure of eight course at Fontwell as she could not really get into a rhythm, leaving her on the back foot from the get-go. However, Almazhar Garde put up a strong performance carrying top weight of 11st 12lb under Paul O’Brien. He jumped out in front and travelled strongly, staying on well up the finish in the extended 3m trip to finish 2nd. We were very pleased with the performance, and the winner only had 10st 6lb, which is a big weight difference, especially when it is a long way!
It looks a quieter week ahead, with our first runner being Dysania at Ffos Lass on Wednesday, making his stable debut over fences. David Noonan takes the ride. Haas Boy and Zestful Hope are both entered in the bumper at Market Rasen on Thursday. No entries for Friday, but entries across three meetings Saturday. Illegal Model is entered in the Stayers’ Hurdle at Haydock, Saint Dalina has entry in the Mares’ Hurdle at Ascot and Guetapan Collonges, Freethinker and Teenage Dirtbag are all in at Huntingdon. Guetapan also holds and entry for Sunday at Uttoxeter along with Tea For Free.
I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed watching the racing.
