29 November 2021
Saturday was set to be one of the busiest days of the season so far with five horses running across three meetings, this was before Bangor was abandoned due to damage from the delightful British weather that we experienced this weekend. It was the most brutal morning riding out in the dark, cold blizzard and the team were fantastic to power on through it. Bangor was cancelled early enough that it meant the two members of staff heading to Bangor had not left yet, and I suspect they were slightly disappointed they then had to ride out for the whole morning, rather than sit in their toasty lorry! It was madness how it was cold, windy, and sleeting for the first half of the morning and then in the space of half an hour there was a big sprinkling of snow settled on the ground. It was bad enough that Zeniy and Vlad had to push Amber’s car up the hill, although that could be down to women drivers!
Bangor was abandoned and Newcastle was left in doubt, all thanks to Storm Arwin. Having contacted Jess and Nathan, who had travelled up the night before with Scene Not Herd and Glen Forsa, they sent us picture of fallen down trees and reported that the wind was extremely strong. It was too dangerous for them to ride out our two horses up there that morning, but they did a brilliant job of looking after them. Although, it appeared the storm slowly started to ease, and all of the Newcastle Races team did a fantastic job of performing track repairs and fighting against natures elements to get the show on the road. Scene Not Herd then put in another polished performance under Johnny Burke and it made the trip up to Newcastle all worth it by winning comfortably, again. He tracked the leaders and jumped to the front from three out before gradually widening his winning margins easily. We always thought chasing would be the making of him, and so far, this is proving to be true. We are thrilled for the Swanee River Partnership and are sure of plenty more fun days out. We were then hopeful of another positive run from Glen Forsa in the Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle who looked to be travelling strongly and creeping into the race, before being pulled up by Aidan Coleman after making a mistake at the 12th. He is absolutely fine, and hopefully we will see him out in three weeks of so.
Due to the abandonment of Bangor it meant that Paul could instead go to Doncaster to ride Alghazaal, and Paul scooted off after first lot to ensure he got to the races in time, given the weather and the traffic warnings. We were looking forward to the performance of Alghazaal, who has impressed at home since arriving. He jumped and travelled well throughout, before weakening quickly. He will get his wind checked this week.
After the pleasing performance from Lyrical Genius on Friday, Moon King also ran at Doncaster to finish 3rd under Sean Quinlan. He ran and jumped well, and always seems to hit a flat spot near two out, however he ran on again to finish strongly. Due Reward took to the track at Newbury with Paul on board. He was prominent in a very strongly run race, before tiring and finishing out the back.
Luckily, we had not declared anything for Carlisle or Leicester on Sunday, as Carlisle was abandoned, and Leicester did well to last as long as it did. The final race was abandoned after they were racing in a snowstorm the race before!
Everyone was wrapped up well this morning. It was a beautiful morning with the sprinkling of snow and sun shining. You can cope with the cold riding out when it isn’t blowing a blizzard at the same time. We have no runners today or tomorrow, however two head to Haydock on Wednesday, The Wise Traveller and Carlow Farmer, where the going is currently ‘frozen,’ this should be thawed out by the time Wednesday comes around as it is meant to warm up a bit tomorrow.
There are lots of entries for later on in the week. George Bancroft, Largy Nights and High Yield are all entered at Market Rasen on Thursday. On Friday, Stroll On By, who was meant to run at Bangor has an entry in the bumper at Exeter, as well as at Sedgefield. The Mighty Arc is also entered at Sedgefield on Friday. There are four entered at Sandown on Friday, however Scene Not Herd will not go due to running this weekend, Saint Dalina, Shah An Shah and What About Time are all entered in the Pertemps Qualifier.
It also looks as though it could be another busy Saturday here with there being four meetings on again and we have entries in all. Snow Leopardess was confirmed for the Becher Chase this morning, but also has an entry at Chepstow as a backup. Byzantium Lad, who was also meant to run at Bangor, Saint Dalina, What About Time and Illegal Model are all in at Chepstow on Saturday as well. Almazhar Garde has an entry at Sandown, but also has an entry at Kelso on the Sunday along with Castle Robin, Illegal Model and Just Your Type. Castle Robin is also entered at Wetherby and so is Largy Nights. Finally, Shah An Shah has an entry on the Sunday at Huntingdon. A busy weekend on paper at the moment!
