Classic Ben Is A Master
Saturday was a fun day! Classic Ben lined up in the 3m, £50,000 Masters Handicap Chase in Sandown. His previous run in Doncaster was his first one back in the cheekpieces, and it was a very interesting run. The pace that day was very very strong, and, for a novice he had jumped and travelled great, until getting outpaced, and then staying on very strongly after the last. The time of the Doncaster race was very good as well, in fact it was only 3 seconds slower than last months Skybet Chase, on slower ground - so the time was right to try him in a valuable heat and see how we got on. Ciaran walked the course beforehand, and knew that the better ground was on the outside, which was ideal for CB as he wouldn't want to be around the inner in a race of this nature anyway. In the end, Ciaran gave the horse an exceptional ride, plotting his wide path, and getting CB jumping beautifully in a rhythm. Sandown is probably my favourite track, and to see the Black Red and White colours jumping the Pond Fence upsides in front at the end of an ultra competitive staying chase on a very good Saturday card would have been a dream come true - I, like most of his owners I'm sure, was pinching myself at this point! CB is all about stamina, and handling the soft ground better than expected to be fair, he stuck his head out and tried all the way to the line, defeating the very brave Ami Desbois by a neck. A superb afternoon, and one that will live long in the memory - a special day! This week we have a couple of entries Lilly's Arc is an at Ayr and Huntingdon, although she has such a low ballot mark in Huntingdon it is very unlikely she will get a run there, with 35 entered and a host of very good mares among them. If she goes anywhere she will go to Ayr on Wednesday, but she was due to be scoped this morning to confirm she is 100% as she had a couple of little coughs last week, but the vet isn't able to get in until tomorrow, so we will know then if she can make the long trip north. If not she will have entries in Ascot and Wetherby in the next 2 weeks. The good news is that she continues to go very nicely at home - putting in some nice pieces of work - so if we can get the right race on soft ground, she should go well. This morning Molly Childers has been entered in the Mares Listed Chase in Exeter. MC has come out of her last run in Wincanton in super form, and we would very much like to try and get some valuable black type with her, and this seems like the logical place to try for that at this stage.
