REVIEW BADSWORTH & BRAMHAM MOORE WETHER SUNDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2003 by John Bulman |
Wetherby
saw a glorious day for racing and made me wonder if I should venture
“down south” more often if this is what the weather’s like down in
the Yorkshire area (see last weeks review from Kelso!!). The
first race was div. 1 of the young horses maiden and provided me with my
greatest Internet research result so far. Star of Raven had run reasonably
behind some good horses in Ireland, most notably Henrietta Knight’s Inca
Trail. Star of Raven was relatively quiet in the market so rewarded us
“shrewdies” with odds of 6/1 and a fairly comfortable win. Another
Irish import (and another I had picked out off the net – not that I’m
boasting!), Colonel Ludlow ran well enough in second to suggest a win is
not beyond him. Knysna Bell was staying on well in second and is capable
of better. Division
two went to Mr Sonshine who stayed on well for the Frank family. The race
had been incident packed with the leader Gatsby carried out by a loose
hose coming the other way round a bend. The incident could have been worse
but fortunately no harm looked to have been done. Gatsby was travelling
very well at the time and was an expensive purchase for Jenny Powell
(surely not of wheel of fortune fame??). This one goes into my notebook
although it is unlikely to run in the North. Quite
a hot ladies race was won by Classofninetytwo who had a ding-dong battle
with the North’s old warrior Balisteros who made the winner fight all
the way to the line. Nothing else really got into the race and the well
fancied Silver Groom fell when starting to make headway and looked lame
afterwards. Division
one of the men’s open went to Good Vibes under Gino Carenza. This former
useful hurdler fought bravely all the way to the line to defeat Mr
Pendleberry and Nicky Tinkler who ran a race full of promise. Division
Two of the men’s went to Omni Cosmo Touch who provided a double for
Niall Saville. This had been a reluctant performer under rules but jumped
his rivals silly to score quite impressively. The
restricted provided, for me, the most impressive win I have seen this
season so far. Royal Corrouge, just a 5 year old had won on his British
pointing debut at Alnwick in January and followed up here by galloping his
rivals into the ground and staying on well to win comfortably. This horse
should continue to improve and looks likely to progress on to better
things. The
first of the older horse maidens went to the strongly fancied favourite
Nomadic Star for Peter Atkinson. The full brother to Go Nomadic was
perhaps fortunate to win as Underley Park seemed to be going better when
he took advantage of his jockey looking round and losing concentration by
ducking out coming to the second last. I imagine he won’t have been
terribly popular with connections after the race but he should be able to
gain compensation by winning soon. Nomadic Star is a bit one paced but
stays well and is probably still improving despite being an eight year
old. The
second division brought a long overdue win for the Vic Thompson trained
The Preacher Man under R. Greene. The Preacher Man has had a string of
placed efforts to his name but to be fair, in the past, he has come up
against some of the best maidens around. The Preacher Man has been called
some unpleasant names as he has flattered to deceive, however on Sunday he
quickened up nicely and kept galloping all the way to the line. Having
taken so long to get his head in front, you would think he might struggle
in restricteds. On the other hand, he obviously has ability and it
wouldn’t be the biggest shock if he were to win again quickly. Sharpaman
came from a long way back to grab second but the winner had already flown. All in all a very pleasant day’s racing was had with big fields and some good finishes and impressive performances. The ground was testing and Wetherby seems a long course although nothing seemed to come from off the pace to win. The form from the maidens at Alnwick (Jan 19th) was backed up with wins for Royal Corrouge, Nomadic Star and The Preacher Man as well as a promising run from Knysna Bell. Based on this form, Magic Performer and Finest of Men could be worth backing next time they run. |