A brilliant weekend of jumps racing to look back on, with successes of Hello Bud, Sprinter Sacre and Flemenstar the main points of focus.
We will start as always with Friday, and Exeter where Fingal Bay ran out in dramatic fashion in the Beginners Chase at the third last fence. He had jumped left throughout the journey, and clearly something must have been hurting him as he has won right handed and at Exeter in the past. It will be interesting to note any comments from the Hobbs yard in the coming days.
It was also nice to see Arbor Supreme back to his best when winning the Devon Marathon over four miles under the very useful conditional Maurice Linehan.
As for Sandown on the same afternoon, Jonjo O'Neill added to the win of Arbor Supreme with a double at Sandown, courtesy of John's Spirit and the impressive Taquin Du Seuil, who I put up as a dark horse at the start of the season. He beat what looked a nice field very nicely and bigger things are still to come with him I'm sure.
Bold Sir Brian was another impressive winner on the card for Lucinda Russell and Peter Buchanen, making the long drive down from Scotland worthwhile, and the dream of the Gold Cup in March is still alive.
Saturday saw four jumps meetings take place, at Aintree, Chepstow, Sandown and Wetherby.
We begin with Aintree, and Buthelezi made a taking hurdles debut winning the opening novice hurdle. Wayward Prince was back to his best on the track he recorded his best win as a hurdler by winning the Listed Chase under Jack Doyle.
Then came for many the highlight of the weekend, in The Becher Chase, the fourteen year old Hello Bud scrambled home to win his second Becher, and there were not many dry eyes around Aintree afterwards. A brave, tough performance by a very genuine, game and gutsy horse, who was yet again defying his age around those famous fences. Not only did the Twiston-Davies team have one winner, they had three, including the other race over the National fences, Little Josh in the Grand Sefton, who persevered in a war of attrition with Gansey.
Over at Chepstow, I was more taken with jockeys than horses, where Patrick Corbett again showed all his promise with a double, Micheal Nolan rode yet another winner and Mikey Ennis won the feature race aboard Sona Sasta.
As for Sandown, the Tingle Creek Chase has been one of the most eagerly anticipated races I can remember for a while, and it didn't disappoint. The performance of Sprinter Sacre yet again was nothing short of breathtaking, an almost faultless round of jumping, only a small error at the first down the far side, and as Sanctuaire got tired approaching the Pond Fence, he breezed past and won with any amount in hand. Kumbeshwar ran a gallant race in second, picking up the valuable prize for second after the legless Sanctuaire struggled up the hill after going off far too fast early in the conditions. The undercard was also dominated by Nicky Henderson who had another three winners on top, Golden Hoof, Petit Robin and the impressive Captain Conan, another nice display by him.
The only thing of note at Wetherby was the Novice Chase, where both Yurok and Aland Islands again showed a lot of promise finishing first and second respectively in a good battle in the heavy ground.
Another busy day on Sunday, where we had top class Irish cards from Cork and Punchestown, plus Kelso and Warwick.
I wanted to mention the comfortable win of Road To Riches at Cork in the Grade 3 Novice Hurdle, who made quite a serious error at the last, but still won with lots left under Paul Carberry.
Tarla was an unlucky loser later in the card, falling at the last when gaining the upper hand. Punchestown was the venue where Flemenstar would take on Sir Des Champs, a battle which was contested over two and a half miles on Heavy ground. It was the former who finally broke Sir Des Champs unbeaten record, again jumping for fun, and sprinting away in the conditions to score by five lengths. His trainer Peter Casey says he was only 90% fit, and if that was the case, then it was a remarkable effort and all being well, he goes for the Lexus at Leopardstown over Christmas.
Kelso hosted the Scottish Borders National, and it went to the game Mortimers Cross for John Needham. I was taken by Lucematic, who scored on hurdles debut later in the card, a mare who should be able to score again against her own sex.
Only a couple of things to mention from Warwick, the first being another super ride by Tony McCoy on the quirky Mission Complete, lifting him home in the long distance chase.
I also thought the winner of the bumper Werenearlyoutofit may be above average. He was just behind Sizing Rio in his point to point, but finished ahead of Clondaw Kaempfer and Pure Style, both nice novices, especially the former.
I hope you have enjoyed my look back, and if you have any feedback, either tweet me @willbowler2k12, or fill in the comments box below.
Will
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