Chic Name claims the big pot in stylish fashion
In the News
A big Friday winner as Chic Name, or ‘Chico’ as we know him claimed a big pot at Newbury, winning the Brown Chamberlin Trophy under Hugo Hunt. It was only Hugo’s second ride for us, but also his second winner, so if he can keep that strike rate going, we’ll be very happy. It’s always nice to get a big winner going into the weekend and we hadn’t had a winner at Newbury before, so it’s nice to tick that one off the list. And it’s nice to see Chic Name back in the winners enclosure. He’s only five still, but he’s had plenty of racing and the step up to three miles has worked really well for him. Let’s hope there’s plenty more fun days to come!
Last week’s runners
Fulgus ran at Warwick on Wednesday and again wasn’t great. He set off in front with the hot favourite in first time cheekpieces under Tom Bellamy, but failed to keep up the gallop. He stopped as if he’d ran into a wall and maybe it’s come to the point that we have to call time on that project.
As already mentioned Chic Name picked up the big pot at Newbury on Friday, making the most of a low weight and Hugo Hunt’s seven lbs claim. He was a bit reluctant to start and needed some encouraging, but once he got going, he went straight to the front and contested the lead for most of the way. The key thing was his jumping, he jumped superbly all the way around and regularly put ground between himself and his rivals over the obstacles. He was obviously enjoying it and gave us a bit of scare when he nearly jumped out of Hugo’s hands at the second last, but he held on and in the end it was quite a comfortable win. Not sure where we will go from here, but maybe to France to make the most of the softer ground as he does enjoy that.
This week’s runners
Petiville is a new addition to the yard, joining from Rebecca Curtis recently and he heads to Stratford on Saturday to make his hurdles debut. He’s ran ok in a couple of bumpers so far, but I think he’s a two-mile hurdler on pedigree and hopefully he’ll give a bold show on hurdles debut. It looks a tricky enough race on paper if they all turn up, but hopefully the field will cut up a bit for our lad.
Cobalt Marthen is our last entry this week. He will head for the bumper at Southwell on Tuesday to make his debut. He is a five year old gelding and a son of the popular sire Balko out of an unraced mare. His sire has produced some useful types like Gitane Du Berlais and Balko Des Flos. The latter led the way in the JLT for a long way and was running a good race when he came down four out. If he’s anywhere near as good, he’ll give us a lot of fun times. We think a lot of him, but he’ll need the experience.