It was perhaps a dream too far to expect Mister Jones to become our fourth winner from our last four runners, and he never even began to look like he was going to do it. In fact, apart from Sues horse Hit the Top, who ran a decent race, neither Mr Moonshine, Dartford Warbler or Mister Jones ran to expectations, and the reason was simply because of the state of the ground.
Advertised as Good to Soft, Soft in places, most jockeys riding would have disagreed with the Clerk of the Course and her assessment, preferring to use words such as, “dead” “bloody hard work” ” heavy” and “sticky” as their descriptions.
Sue and Harvey also were not happy people. Maybe MJ wasn`t feeling at his best, maybe a sixteen runner cavalry charge was a shock to his system, maybe the ground was not he best for his longest race to date (2ml 6f) but, disappointing as the day was for all concerned, especially those who made the long journey to Scotland, I believe its best to write off the events at Kelso, put it behind us, and believe in our jockey who is adamant MJ is a nice young horse with a future.
Four from four was not to be, so lets move on and look forward to the enjoyment of the Cheltenham Festival and the possibilities, immediately after, of having two runners at the Midlands National meeting at Uttoxeter on Saturday 15th March.
