Love the Jumps

With the weather not getting any better more and more meetings got postponed due to bad racing conditions, luckily Kempton went ahead so thats where we will start. The Grade 2 Pendil Novices Chase, this saw Commanche Red go off favourite, he was looking to record back to back wins at Kempton after winning well on Boxing Day. Master Tommytucker led throughout the race jumping well, hoping to do better than he did last time here were he fell. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be the case as he fell once again when holding a 2 length lead, hampering Pistol Whipped in the process. Turning in for home with 3 to jump it was between Who Dares Wins and Southfield Stone , they were neck and neck up the run in, with Southfield Stone just having his grey head in front jumping the last. But it was Who Dares Wins who landed with the momentum and ran on well to win by 3/4s of a length. He’s been a brilliant horse for connections over the years having now won over fences as well as hurdles...

There wasn’t much racing this week with the weather getting the better of quite a few meetings, but we still had a couple go ahead on the weekend. There was a small field in the opener at Ascot, with the race looking to be between the unbeaten Sporting John and Master Debonair . In the end it was all about one horse, that being Sporting John , he tracked Master Debonair throughout the race who didn’t jump very fluently. Sporting John took up the lead 2 from home and quickly put the race to bed before being eased down. This for me was an impressive performance and will see him bang in the mix in the Ballymore at Cheltenham. Next was the Reynoldstown Novice Chase, this saw Sam Brown go off the favourite, but he like Pym who was 2nd in the market ended up being pulled up. In the end the race went the way of the Colin Tizzard trained Copperhead , he was always up with the race and travelling well, before taking up the lead 2 out before being ridden clear to win by 17 length...

After last weeks action packed weekend with the Dublin racing festival, this weeks racing was a little tame, but none the less we had some olde favourites on show at Newbury. We start with the first at Newbury and the 2m novice hurdle, this went the way of the short priced favourite in Chantry House . He was always in touch being just off the leaders, before Barry Geraghty made his move on him with 3 left to jump. He cruised upsides the long time leader Manvers Cross at the last before being pushed clear to go on and win easily. It was an impressive performance and he’s now as short as 8/1 for the Supreme and Ballymore at Cheltenham, he'd have to have a chance in either of them but I feel he may find one too good. It was also a nice performance from Manvers Cross in 2nd, he will definitely be getting off the mark in the near future.  Next was the Grade 2 Game Spirit Chase, which saw the return of Altior after losing his unbeaten record over obstacles. He was obviously...

The Dublin Racing Festival looked a cracking couple of days on paper and it didn’t disappoint, although we had a couple of non runners, this didn’t stop there being some great performances. First up we have the Grade 1 Novice hurdle over 2m6f, Fury Road went into the race as the unbeaten favourite. He chased the leaders throughout the race, before making a mistake at the 6th hurdle. He then was disputing 4th 2 from h ome with Elixir D’ainay , but neither of them were a match for the first 3 home. The winner was the Paul Nolan trained Latest Exhibition , he along with Longhouse Poet tracked the leader Cobbler’s Way . Cobbler’s Way  led till the last where he was passed by Longhouse Poet . Out of the 3 it Latest Exhibition stayed on the best in the run in to win by 2 lengths, with Cobbler’s   Way  just getting 2nd in the final strides. It was a good performance from Latest Exhibition , who came into the race with some nice form when beating Andy Durfresne a...