Take Over At Exeter

The stable had a few placed runners yesterday at Plumpton and Kempton.  I thought that Beyond ran a good race when third in the fiercely competitive Pertemps handicap hurdle qualifier.  He made a brave attempt to make all at a good pace and he has probably produced an improved performance on his hurdles debut for the yard - the way he kept going suggests that he may be suited by an even stiffer test of stamina at some point.  Young amateur Tom Bellamy gave Bathwick Scanno a good ride to finish runner-up to A Little Bit Dusty at Plumpton and on this evidence he should be capable of picking up a little race somewhere.

The stable had a few placed runners yesterday at Plumpton and Kempton.  I thought that Beyond ran a good race when third in the fiercely competitive Pertemps handicap hurdle qualifier.  He made a brave attempt to make all at a good pace and he has probably produced an improved performance on his hurdles debut for the yard - the way he kept going suggests that he may be suited by an even stiffer test of stamina at some point.  Young amateur Tom Bellamy gave Bathwick Scanno a good ride to finish runner-up to A Little Bit Dusty at Plumpton and on this evidence he should be capable of picking up a little race somewhere.

We have a great card of racing to look forward to at Exeter this afternoon and we have a runner in the three mile handicap chase.  Winning ex-French import Take Over Sivola (pictured right, on the gallops earlier in the week) makes his debut for the yard and he looks to be a nice prospect, although judging by the fact that the bookies go 5/1 the field it is a wide open contest!  The Haldon Gold Cup also looks like being an exciting race with the likes of Captain Chris, Ghizao and Medermit all making their seasonal debuts.  The going looks like being perfect jumping ground so there should certainly be no excuses on that front.

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It has been a beautiful sunny morning and we have taken the opportunity to conduct plenty of schooling while I was on hand to capture some of the action.  Below you will see promising bumper performer Bathwick Brave jumping hurdles under Tom Scudamore as well as the unraced Le Chasse Spleen who was schooling under Kieron Edgar.  As you can see from the photographs they both jumped very nicely.  I will have some more pictures of this morning's session throughout the week, so keep checking back!

  
Above left: Bathwick Brave and right: Le Chasse Spleen schooling over hurdles this morning

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There was a cracking good finish to the Melbourne Cup in Australia during the early hours of this morning.  The photo finish seemed to take an eternity to be decided but it was French trained Dunaden who just prevailed by a nose from Ed Dunlop's Red Cadeaux to provide stand-in jockey Christophe Lemaire (who was taking over from the suspended Craig Williams) with the spare ride of a lifetime!  It was a teriffic race for the Europeans with last year's winner Americain (also French trained) finishing fourth.  Congratulations to winning owner's Pearl Bloodstock and everyone involved with the horse.

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I was watching the football last night and I thought that it was a great win for Newcastle over Stoke...mind you, it was an ex-Hammer Demba Ba who scored all three goals.  It was a shame we could not have kept him along with Spurs best player Scotty Parker!