- Monday, 02 January 2012 08:28
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
The stable ended 2011 in good form with a treble on Friday and a winner at Warwick on Saturday and began 2012 in similar vein with a success at Exeter on Sunday. Swing Bowler, a daughter of David Johnson's cracking good mare Lady Cricket certainly seems to have inherited some of her dam's ability and maintained her unbeaten record by landing her second bumper. Although there was only a very modest pace, she quickened up in impressive fashion in the straight to score comfortably. It isn't easy to win a bumper under a penalty, so this certainly bodes well for the future.
- Sunday, 01 January 2012 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Well, Happy New Year everyone! I can't believe that it is 2012...I'm sure there will be a few sore heads around the yard this morning! Anyway, there is a great day's National Hunt racing lined-up with Cheltenham heading the bill. Matuhi represents us in the feature chase at Prestbury Park and with over £40,000 up for grabs, it is a very competitive contest as you would expect. We also have two runners, African Broadway and Unex Degas at our local track, Exeter. African Broadway takes a big drop in class having run against the likes of Fingal Bay last time, while Unex Degas makes his debut for the stable.
- Saturday, 31 December 2011 08:48
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
It was another good day for the yard yesterday with an across the card treble with Mr Chow and Arab League scoring at Taunton, and Tamarinbleu winning at Haydock. I thought that it was a great performance from our evergreen veteran Tamarinbleu who celebrates his twelfth birthday tomorrow to carry topweight of 11-12 around there in that ground. It was an amazing ride from Timmy Murphy and he reminds me of a vintage bottle of wine that keeps getting better with age - it was a real masterclass in how to coax one home. These veteran's races are a great idea - the crowds love to see these old warriors do battle and it gives them good opportunities to get in the winners' enclosure again - the winning prize-money of £11,000 is not to be sniffed at either!
- Friday, 30 December 2011 08:36
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
- Thursday, 29 December 2011 07:56
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Bygones Sovereign was only narrowly beaten at Leicester yesterday afternoon in what looked to be a fair novices' hurdle for the course. The third home, Medinas had winning form and I think that the first three home will all go on to prove themselves useful hurdlers and win further races.
We have two runners this afternoon at Doncaster, Trop Fort and newcomer Bamboleo. Bamboleo, who runs in the closing bumper certainly looks the part on paper being a brother to Nicky Henderson's very smart hurdler/novice chaser Mossley, with the dam being a half sister to Commanche Court. Tom Scudamore will ride both our runners.
- Wednesday, 28 December 2011 08:21
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
We are off to Leicester this afternoon with a couple of runners, Bygones Sovereign who makes his hurdling debut and Enfant de Lune who participates in the handicap hurdle - both will be ridden by Tom Scudamore. The best of our runners yesterday at Chepstow was Consigliere who ran his best race for some time when third over fences, although he still looks as though he could do with a little bit of respite from the handicapper.
- Tuesday, 27 December 2011 08:19
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
What a great day's Racing we were treated to at Kempton yesterday afternoon with Kauto Star recording an amazing fifth success in the King George VI Chase - I doubt we will ever see another horse achieve that in our lifetimes. Having said that, what about Grands Crus who won his race over an identical trip (albeit carrying 3lbs less) by almost three seconds. A racehorse in full cry can travel quite a long way in three seconds so this was clearly some performance from a novice on only his third start over fences. It is difficult to know how good could he be as to me he looked to be idling a little in front and certainly wasn't fully exerted.
