Lets start with the good news.
As most of us know, our 4yo filly Becky the Thatcher, since going hurdling, won her first race, arguably the worst ever hurdle race ever run at Musselburgh…or indeed anywhere, then backed it up by dumping Finn O` Toole at the first hurdle next time out.
Mixed fortunes then for us guys, and up against 7-1 ON shot Giveaway Glance of Alan Kings, most agreed the best we could hope for was a clear round and a bit of place money….about 250 quid for 4th place.
So it was an absolute delight to see Becky making up ground in the straight and upsides the favourite at the last hurdle, ten lengths clear of the rest.
Ok, in the end, she got run out of it, but it was good to see our Northern trained horse doing her best to almost thwart the marauding Southern based King yard with its 7-1 ON shot, sent up to Catterick no doubt in search of easy pickings that his, and other yards, expect when they frequently head North in search of facile successes in Novice hurdles and Chases.
But enough of the soap box stuff for now.
In the absence of Trainer Micky Hammond, jockey Finian O`Toole carried out MY instructions to the letter, although fair play to him, my instructions were also his intentions, so no credit to me there then! and he was well impressed with the progress our filly is making. “She`s a nice horse still learning her job, but there`s definitely more to come” he said
No big plans though, but Finn wasn`t too hard on her in the race, she ate up well back in her box, and was fine the following morning.
So I`m sure Micky will soon find another realistic opportunity for her at a local track, hopefully, with minimal “competition” from the said constant flow of northbound marauding southern yards on their regular 250 / 300 mile round trips, after which, when deducted, expenses involved hardly cover the amount of winning prize money on offer.
Oops there`s the soap box again !!
Fill The Power
It kind of looks that the old boy, now 11yo has lost a lot of his enthusiasm for racing, as witnessed in the North Yorkshire Grand National on the same card at Catterick. First time he`s had the letters P/U in his form figures confirms the point.
With hindsight, had there been three more declarations, FTP would not have got in the race, so racing with 10st 9lbs on his back at the bottom of the weights against mostly younger, higher rated horses like winner and stable mate Straidnahanna was never going to be easy for him.
It was also pointed out by jockey Sean Quinlan that the starter ruined his intention to lead from flag fall by stopping the horses from their walk in, at which time Sean was pulling FTP back, but the flag then came down resulting in horse and jockey, through lack of momentum, being immediately shunted back to the middle of the pack, thus whatever chance he may have had, probably went down the pan.
But before we decide its finally time for him to hang up his shoes in exchange for slippers, we`ll give him a nice break, after which I have a race in mind which certainly ticks all the right boxes.
I`m sure Sue will agree with my intentions, but thats all I`m saying, except I do believe he has the ability to prove to us all he is capable of performing to a better standard than he has done so far this season.
Then perhaps his next race may be his last race, and he can go out on a high note.
We shall see.
