In the News
Not much in the way of news this week. The flat is back, if that’s your thing, but for most of us National Hunt fans it’s all about Aintree of course. The Grand National meeting gets underway on the Thursday and we’re hoping to have a runner there this week in Dame Rose. The National itself is always a great spectacle and let’s hope everyone, horses and jockeys both come back safely after the marathon attritional test that it is.
Last week’s runners
Petiville made a pretty good debut for the yard at Stratford under a patient ride from Jamie Bargary. He sat in sixth position for most of the way around and jumped ok in the main. Jamie shook him up about two out and he responded well to improve past a few rivals, jumped the last two well and stayed on gamely for second behind the runaway winner. He got better the further he went and he should come on from that experience.
Cobalt Marthen was entered in the bumper on the same day, but the ground wasn’t right, so he didn’t run. We’ll try again at Chepstow this week.
This week’s runners
Dame Rose is entered in the Mares Bumper at Aintree on the Thursday and we’re hoping she can bounce back from a disappointing result at Newbury back in March. She didn’t really enjoy the ground and the kickback that she got that day and although she swept around the outside impressively on the home turn, she emptied out too quickly in the ground. Conditions look much more favourable for here at Aintree and although it looks a good field, she’s worthy of her place among them. She gets the four year old allowance, which will be a big help for her.
Cobalt Marthen is our other entry this week. He’s been unlucky with the ground so far, so we haven’t managed to get him racing yet. Hopefully things will be different at Chepstow, where he’s entered in the closing bumper on the card. He needs the experience, so it’s been unfortunate that we haven’t got a run into him yet as we think quite a bit of him.
Other
In other news, it was great to see Alain Cawley back on track this week after his fall on Surf and Turf at Kempton last October. He suffered dislocations in both shoulders and it’s took a while to heal, but now he’s back and will ride both Dame Rose and Cobalt Marthen if all goes to plan.