Bold Does It Again!

Only The Bold Wins Hereford 

It was great to get winner number 56 of the season yesterday at Hereford courtesy of Only The Bold winning the staying handicap chase. Fergus Gillard was once again on board, the pair having won on chasing and stable at Bangor 65 days earlier. He travelled and jumped well throughout in midfield before coming through to lead at the second last and going away to score quite cosily in the end. He won this off a mark of 126 and will be due another rise in the weights but I think there is more to come from him as he is pretty lightly raced, he is a strong stayer and has a very willing attitude. There were plenty of members of the Value Racing Club who own him in attendance and it was a lovely win for all concerned.

Red Happy was unlucky to be carried out by a loose horse in his race while Jilaijone ran a cracker to be second on his handicap debut. Our four year old travelled and jumped beautifully and tried his heart out in the finish but unfortunately we just bumped into a very well handicapped rival. He will be winning again soon. Meanwhile over at Plumpton Sidi Ismael never went from the start in his race and was pulled up. I’m not sure why but he was definitely not at the races yesterday and so we can put a line through this as too bad to be true.

Today we have four runners across two of the jumps meetings at Ffos Las and Lingfield while they also race at Newcastle over jumps. Bashful Kate makes her handicap debut in the first race at Ffos Las under Philip armson. She has not shown a lot to date and has been green but she has had a little break and should appreciate the step up in trip today. Hopefully she can put up a good performance and show us a bit more this afternoon.

At Lingfield we are involved in the last three races on the card. New Age Dawning is the first of our runners in the 2m4f handicap chase. We drop down in distance today after he traveled powerfully in first time cheek pieces at Exeter last time before getting a little tired. This is a competitive race but the track and ground will suit and a similar run to last time should see him go very well. Tom Scu rides all of our Lingfield runners and Lock Out runs in the 2m3f handicap hurdle. This represents his easiest opportunity for a couple of runs and he will enjoy the extra distance this afternoon. He does have a lot of weight to carry but he had run well at the track before and should go well again.  Jet Smart runs in the concluding handicap over 2m7f. This is his first try out of novice events and he will also appreciate the big step up in trip. He ran a nice race on debut at Ascot before disappointing at Sedgefield and running okay at Taunton last time. He wears cheek pieces to help him concentrate and I am hopeful he can run well in this at a good each way price.

West Ham beat Derby 2-0 last night to go through to the Fourth round of the FA Cup. Tonight there is another game to watch as Newcastle play Southampton in the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-final. Newcastle are at home and hold a 1-0 lead so I do think it will be tough for the Saints  to turn this one around but you never know!!

My dog accidentally swallowed a whole bag of scrabble tiles. We took him to the vet to get him checked out. No word yet! Have a good day.