Looking back on a busy week last week and forward to the big one next week
In the News
Less than a week to go until the biggest four days in National Hunt racing and it could be a good week for the Bloodstock branch. Petit Mouchoir, Disko & Alpha Des Obeaux were all source by RHBloodstock and they all come to Cheltenham with a chance of success. But our eyes will mainly be focused on the Wednesday at just after four o’clock when Valadom will lead the way in the Cross Country. He’s in good shape and hopefully he can be right in the mix at the finish.
Last week’s runners
Fulgus ran on the Thursday in the opener at Ludlow and was last of the seven to finish. He again didn’t jump great, practically taking the first sideways and then hit third. He never really looked fluent after that and Conor O’Farrell was at work on him from an early stage. He soon drifted backwards and got home a fair bit behind the others. He shows more than that at home and we’ll try and sharpen him up a bit and see if he can put some of that homework in on an afternoon.
Dame Rose was fancied to go well in the bumper at Newbury on Saturday, but didn’t run her race. She’s much better than she showed and being held up in last place won’t have helped her much. She came travelling strongly around the outside on the turn for home, but in pretty desperate ground that took a lot of energy and she ended up only finishing fifth. She was taking on a lot of big future chasers and they’ll have been more suited to the conditions than she was. We think the world of her and are sure she’ll bounce back in better conditions.
Chic Name stepped up to three miles for the first time and ran well under Lizzie Kelly. With plenty of rain everywhere, he was in his element in the paddocks at home, which were absolutely drenched. There was plenty of rain at the track as well, but with tracks being so fast draining nowadays, most of that rain had soaked away and the ground turned very tacky and holding. He got a bit outpaced down the back on the second circuit, but stayed on and nearly snatched third. We’ll probably head to France with him from here, there’ll be some conditions races that should suit him over there.
Caprice D’Anglais didn’t go to France in the end, but we’ll keep looking at opportunities across the Channel where the prize money is substantially larger.
This week’s runners
We have no runners this week, a quiet week ahead of the festival.