Another Saturday Double

       Eton Mes Winner at Wincanton

I could get used to this...coming into work on a Monday morning and writing about a Saturday double for the team! It was a double for the team at Pond House at Wincanton and a first professional double for our young jockey, Rian Corcoran.  Eton Mes got the day off to a good start by winning the opening contest of the day and following up his success at Uttoxeter last time on handicap debut.  I think it is amazing what a win does for a horses confidence and this was by far the best performance of his career by our five year old.  He travelled and jumped really well throughout and took up the running coming towards the last hurdle and won fairly comfortably with his ears pricked!  He has an entry at Ffos Las on Friday and is likely to run there as he will escape a penalty and a repeat of this run will surely make him very hard to beat.

        Royal Mer Winner at Wincanton

It was a heart-warming win for Royal Mer a little later in the afternoon at Wincanton for a number of reasons.  Royal Mer has not won for about two years but is very consistent and this was his sixth career success since coming over from France.  Previously owner by Sam Sutton, his other five victories came in his colours but Sam sadly passed away in October following a short illness and he was only very young.  We bought Royal Mer off his family and he now runs in the colours of Somerset Racing which is a small local syndicate run by Richard Wilkin.  They formerly owned the horse Itacare in training with us and when he finished his career here, they kindly gave him to the Corcoran family and he provided Rian with the first three winners of his point to point career and the horse really got him started.  It is a lovely connection for Rian to have won in their colours under rules and a deserved success for our gallant grey.

It was another lovely story at Ascot, with Gericault Roque returning to form and running a cracker to be second in the big handicap chase under Jack Tudor.  As I mentioned on Saturday, class is permanent and he has some very good form in the book but he is very lightly raced in recent years.  He picked up a tendon injury when finishing third in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury in November 2022 and that was only his fourth start since.  We knew the ability was still there and he showed a great attitude when Jack asked him for his effort and galloped all the way to the line.  It was so good to see him run like this and touch wood he seems fine since the race which is the main thing.  It was a thrill to see him enjoy his race and show his great attitude and fingers crossed he can get a deserved victory in a nice race before the end of the season.

Jurancon was disappointing in his hurdle race at Ascot but he did not scope great following the race so we have a reason for that.  Thanksforthelp ran well for a long way up at Haydock before finishing fifth.

The new week starts with a jumps race card at Carlisle and a flat meeting at Wolverhampton.  In Ireland they have a jumps fixture at Fairyhouse.  There was due to be another jumps meeting at Lingfield today but that was abandoned due to waterlogging a couple of days ago.

More on a great sporting weekend tomorrow but there is one FA Cup fourth round match this evening between Macclesfield and Brentford at 7.30pm.  The England cricketers play Italy in the T20 World Cup at 9.30am this morning and there is of course Winter Olympics action to watch as well!

Scientists have successfully captured the sound of two helium atoms laughing.

HeHe.

Happy Monday!