The week continues with Doncaster being the venue today, hopefully my first racing “up north” in 2009, after the abortive trip to Newcastle in January.
The downside being a longish, just over two hour, drive.
The plus side of Doncaster is the new stand, which although not all racegoers cup of tea, from a hacks perspective a great place to visit with a great, bright, airy press room – even though not all the power points work!!!
This was Doncaster’s final jumps meeting of the season and the highlight was the Grand National trial, even though that was diminished by the absence of last year’s National winner Comply Or Die, who came out because of the drying ground.
Ironic isn’t it – a few weeks ago we were losing meetings because of snow and waterlogging – now we are losing runners because the ground is too dry – what a fickle sport this is.
This meeting saw a combination of joy, tragedy and farce in equal measure.
Joy in the thrilling finish to the National trial with Out The Black just getting the better of Gidam Gidam in an exciting finish.
The bumper afterwards produced a good winner in the shape of Lidar. Lidar holds an entry in the Champion Bumper at the Festival but trainer Alan Kin has warned he may not run.
The tragedy came for trainer Oliver Sherwood, who came to the races with two runners, both of whom never made the journey home. In the first his runner Grandage fell and had to be put down.
It was, however, the second incident which was absolutely horrific to watch. In the third race Sherwood’s Arrayou was leading the field when he stumbled approaching the eighth flight.
Sherwood’s horse stumbled and fell, bringing down Leac An Scail who slid into the flight. The latter horse his jockey Tjade Collier were both very lucky to walk away unscathed.
Unfortunately Arrayou broke his leg and his jockey Dominic Elsworth was taken to hospital with an injured shoulder.
The farce came in the 3 mile beginners chase.
Since time in memorial the sun has always started to go down around this time of the day, at this time of the year, here at Town Moor.
Why therefore stage a chase race where all four fences in the home straight need to be omitted due to the low sun?
As a result the 3 mile beginners chase found itself reduced from eighteen to ten fences aith a 6 furlong run in.
To add to the stupidity of it all, exactly the same thing happened in the same race last year.
If the course executive at Doncaster try and do the same next year I hope the BHA clamp down on them.
As often happens at race meetings there was a swift exodus and within minutes of the last race finishing the stands were almost deserted. Which was a great pity.
The handful of racegoers who stayed behind after racing at Doncaster on Saturday were treated to a good display of Cheltenham and Aintree contenders. The star attraction was Tidal Bay, recovering from injury, who had a half speed spin over 1½ miles on the flat then popped a couple of fences in the dwindling light. Trainer Howard Johnson said he was pleased with the workout but was still to decide whether to go for the Ryanair or Queen Mother. Also on display was Kalahari King who schooled over ten fences, alongside Ivore De Beaulieu and half a dozen other Murphy runners. Again at half speed most of the way, the pair jumped fluently and had a good blow on the run-in.
That was day six of the week done and just a gentle 125 mile drive home.
Luckily tomorrow’s racing at Huntingdon is a “local” trip for me – so much less driving.
The downside being a longish, just over two hour, drive.
The plus side of Doncaster is the new stand, which although not all racegoers cup of tea, from a hacks perspective a great place to visit with a great, bright, airy press room – even though not all the power points work!!!
This was Doncaster’s final jumps meeting of the season and the highlight was the Grand National trial, even though that was diminished by the absence of last year’s National winner Comply Or Die, who came out because of the drying ground.
Ironic isn’t it – a few weeks ago we were losing meetings because of snow and waterlogging – now we are losing runners because the ground is too dry – what a fickle sport this is.
This meeting saw a combination of joy, tragedy and farce in equal measure.
Joy in the thrilling finish to the National trial with Out The Black just getting the better of Gidam Gidam in an exciting finish.
The bumper afterwards produced a good winner in the shape of Lidar. Lidar holds an entry in the Champion Bumper at the Festival but trainer Alan Kin has warned he may not run.
The tragedy came for trainer Oliver Sherwood, who came to the races with two runners, both of whom never made the journey home. In the first his runner Grandage fell and had to be put down.
It was, however, the second incident which was absolutely horrific to watch. In the third race Sherwood’s Arrayou was leading the field when he stumbled approaching the eighth flight.
Sherwood’s horse stumbled and fell, bringing down Leac An Scail who slid into the flight. The latter horse his jockey Tjade Collier were both very lucky to walk away unscathed.
Unfortunately Arrayou broke his leg and his jockey Dominic Elsworth was taken to hospital with an injured shoulder.
The farce came in the 3 mile beginners chase.
Since time in memorial the sun has always started to go down around this time of the day, at this time of the year, here at Town Moor.
Why therefore stage a chase race where all four fences in the home straight need to be omitted due to the low sun?
As a result the 3 mile beginners chase found itself reduced from eighteen to ten fences aith a 6 furlong run in.
To add to the stupidity of it all, exactly the same thing happened in the same race last year.
If the course executive at Doncaster try and do the same next year I hope the BHA clamp down on them.
As often happens at race meetings there was a swift exodus and within minutes of the last race finishing the stands were almost deserted. Which was a great pity.
The handful of racegoers who stayed behind after racing at Doncaster on Saturday were treated to a good display of Cheltenham and Aintree contenders. The star attraction was Tidal Bay, recovering from injury, who had a half speed spin over 1½ miles on the flat then popped a couple of fences in the dwindling light. Trainer Howard Johnson said he was pleased with the workout but was still to decide whether to go for the Ryanair or Queen Mother. Also on display was Kalahari King who schooled over ten fences, alongside Ivore De Beaulieu and half a dozen other Murphy runners. Again at half speed most of the way, the pair jumped fluently and had a good blow on the run-in.
That was day six of the week done and just a gentle 125 mile drive home.
Luckily tomorrow’s racing at Huntingdon is a “local” trip for me – so much less driving.
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