Ante Post Focus - Charlie Hall Chase

This weekend see's the first big race of the National Hunt season, the Bet365 Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby Racecourse, the lovely Yorkshire venue just off the A1. The ground looks like being decent jumping ground, not quite the bog last year's winner Harry Topper would want but not quick enough to scare any of the big guns away. The market is headed by Paul Nicholl's Silviniaco Conti at around about 5/4, miles too short for me given the stable form. Some of the stable seem to massively need the run whereas some of them look fit as a fiddle first-time up, and while the trainer has said his charge is plenty fit enough for this weekend I'm loath to take such a short price given my concerns about the yard, and the fact that this is certainly a prep run for the Betfair Haydock Chase in 3 weeks time. I'm definitely swerving the favourite here.

Wednesday saw trainer Mouse Morris declare his horse, First Lieutenant, for the big race at Down Royal at the weekend, meaning he would not be travelling over the Irish Sea to Wetherby and thus depriving the race of it's 2nd favourite in the market. This move saw Taquin Du Seuil shorten into around 4/1, and with race fitness on his side after his re-appearance run at Newton Abbot plus the fact he receives 5lbs from the favourite many people will see this as a good bet. Indeed if Taquin is to develop into the Gold Cup horse the stable hope he can be he should be going very close this weekend. I don't see the step up in trip being an issue, certainly last year he looked like appreciating a trip, and his jumping should stand him in good stead here. The champion jockey AP McCoy is back in the saddle on Saturday and if Taquin had turned up at Wetherby without his prep run at Newton Abbot he would probably be a deal shorter after his impressive Cheltenham success the time before. Instead he is around the 4/1 mark, rather than the 5/2 he would probably be otherwise, and you are getting a horse with a prep race on his side...ideal! Jonjo's charge certainly appeals more than Silviniaco Conti as an outright win bet in the Charlie Hall.

However I've got myself an e/w bet that I am most keen on for this race, and that's in the shape of 10/1 shot Medermit from the Alan King stable. King has his yard in flying form and I'm really keen on his admirable 10 year old especially given Medermit's record fresh; 2 out of his last 3 first time out appearances have resulted in victory. Furthermore we know this grey gelding gets the 25 furlong trip he will face on Saturday well after he rounded off last season with a commendable 4th in the Punchestown Gold Cup, something that isn't guaranteed for Taquin at a much shorter price. Finally Medermit gets 5lbs from Taquin, 6 from Double Ross and 10 from the likes of Conti and Menorah! At 10/1 I think medermit rates as a knocking e/w bet Ante-Post with 3 places on offer, especially given the likelihood of the field reducing in numbers come raceday which could lead to only 2 places on offer.

Advice

Medermit e/w 10/1

It's the start of british jumps time!

Well this Sunday marked the end of the Irish flat racing season, the clocks going back and the last group 1 race of the British flat racing season. Welcome back national hunt racing really! Aintree held their first meeting of the season and with decent cards coming at chepstow and wincanton  as well, as fans of the jumping scene we were not short of entertainment and I certainly enjoyed it. Perhaps a lot of readers will disagree with me but I must admit I was actually more entertained by the midweek action this week, seeing a few familiar hurdles go over fences like Deputy Dan, Far West and Puffin Billy, than the weekend action but as the weeks go by that is sure to change. From a punting point of view the victory of Spirit of Shankly was most welcome; I flagged the horse up in my Friday blog as my horse for the weekend and he did not disappoint me. However end of the aftertiming for me; to be fair I haven't my more winners to talk of!

Its a case of cheers to Charlie for my punting high point this weekend

       Hawk high, last year's Fred Winter winner, was a big drifter before the opening race but went on to take the opener on the card and should be interesting to follow for the year. However onto the main event....Wishful Thinking, who obviously had a breathing operation or two which we learned of AFTER the race, routed the field in the feature race on the Aintree card, the Money's Garden Old Roan Chase. Hobbs has his yard in fine fettle and this admirable 11 year old welcomed the good around on offer at the weekend, with the favourite Uxizandre back in 4th spot but sure to come on for the race and possibly the one to take out of the race with the winner sure to be clobbered by the handicapper for this win. At 11 years of age further improvements man not be that easy to find for Wishful Thinking and going up 10lbs won't make life easy for him. Bold Sir Brian trailer home in 9th but Lucinda Russell hadn't been going amazingly at the moment and BSB will surely come on for his first run in an absolute ago. When the stable are going a bit better I'll be looking for BSB to post a better performance on the back of his season pipeopener; he was once thought of as a Gold Cup horse so if he retains some of his old zest could surprise a lot of people next time up. Finally on this race Module looks set to go back down in trip and onto Cheltenham and its undulations for his next assignment after disappointing over this extended trip. Tom George said they were going a bit too quick for him on this flatter track so the stiffer Cheltenham course will suit his charge more and trainer was not too despondent post race.

The old boy done good

Aintree also had a nice veteran's race at 3:40 where pigeon island was smashed in the market all day long in the build-up to this one, only to get beat by a neck in a tight finish with Lie Forrit, from the aforementioned Lucinda Russell yard! Burton Port ran yet another stinker and I actually may have to resign myself to the fact this old warrior isn't chucked in off this ever declining mark sooner or later and is just past it!

One horse who is certainly not past it however was seen at Chepstow, where Blaklion really caught the attention when keeping up his 100% record for Nigel Twiston-Davies in the Persion War Novices Hurdle. After not starting at Cheltenham a week back this was much more like it from the 5 year old as he beat some decent opposition to win this Grade 2. I'm not sure what plans are for Blaklion from now but the way he beat Vincente and The Pirates Queen was really very impressive, definitely one to keep an eye on over these fort of trips this season. Sadly the really highly touted Son Du Berlais was fatally injured in behind, quite a loss to Nicky Henderson and connections and considerations are with them.
In the other features on the Chepstow card Regal Encore ran a stinker after being sent off as favourite in the Silver Trophy eventually won by Shelford from the red hot Skelton yard, what a fantastic double act Dan and Harry are! I'm actually surprised all of Harry's winners this season have been for brother Dan as he is proving himself a really useful jockey, however it must only be a matter of time before he starts to pick up a lot more outside rides as his talent in the saddle cannot really be questioned. In the last 14 days he has only had one ride for anyone bar his brother, on a 20/1 shot trainer by John Ferguson,  and it is a bit of a mystery to me why this is so. Am I missing something readers?

A potent combination

What else did we see over sticks this weekend? Well Sunday brought a rare shocker from McCoy in the saddle upon champagne present in the opener at Aintree. He really should have been notching up another winner on this one judging from his confidence in the saddle, however somehow Chicoria, an unfancied 33/1 shot, beat him too the winning post denying the champion jockey victory as he chases 300 winners for the season. As if his recent absence from the plate wasn't enough of a dent in these hopes; AP's cat will have had a real kicking tonight! Nicholls and Curtis both had doubles on the Sunday cards, Nicholls especially will be well welcoming this return to form after a patchy recent few weeks. He has said in a recent Betfair column that his stable are about a month behind so these early season winners, will in monetary terms not that valuable , in terms of stable confidence could prove vital in the coming weeks especially with Wetherby coming next weekend. Stable star Silviniaco Conti is set to contest the Charlie Hall and Rocky Creek (their big Grand National hope) is also set for a weekend appearance at Down Royal; it could be a great springboard for the yard going into the season proper.

Speaking of next weekend Wetherby is definitely shaping up to beat this weekend for me in the excitement stakes. Rumours of an appearance for World Hurdle Winner More of That were fuelled by McCoy's weekend comments, saying it wasn't an impossibility which would be really exciting for any jumps fan. Fingal Bay could start out over hurdles as he bids to take the Hennessy for Philip Hobbs as well but the Charlie Hall really could be an absolute cracker and blow everything else away. As mentioned Silviniaco Conti is a possible runner, as are First Lieutenant, Taquin Du Seuil, The Giant Bolster and Dynaste...wow! Definitely something to get you through the first week of leaving work every day in the darkness!

Once again thanks for reading and any comments much appreciated.

Alex

Week Review and the National Hunt game is getting lively

A few Nicholls winners (actually surprising after his stable's start to the season), a few familiar Cheltenham names back out and a Wayne Hutchinson injury...thats right the National Hunt season is really getting going now. I jest about the last part of that sequence, as a runner myself I know the disappointment of injury and Wayne seems to be a really unlucky jockey in this regard, but it has left Alan King in a tricky Jockey position for this weekend but not for the reasons he is used to! Usually he has trouble deciding whether Choc or Wayne ride his horses, but now with both potentially sidelined he has the task of finding some suitable substitutes for his weekend runners. However with the form of the stable currently I'm sure there will be a few agents on the phone at the moment trying to get a hot ride off King who is operating at a 38% strike rate over the last fortnight-sizzling!!!
We'v seen some useful performances this week, and yesterday saw a cracking Novice Chase fought out at Carlisle between Urban Hymn and Duke of Navan, the latter coming out on top by a head but undoubtably horses that will both be going places this season. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Urban Hymn upped in trip given his hurdling form came over further. whilst Duke of Navan will be kept at shorter trips as he has contested the Fighting Fifth and other shorter hurdling trips. Buywise, a very unlucky loser at last year's Cheltenham festival, made a winning re-appearance and was trimmed into 10/1 for this year's Paddy Power Gold Cup on the back of this. Trainer Evan Williams was hugely downbeat over his horse's fitness pre-race so to see him win, and win well, bodes well as he can be expected to come on hugely for the run.

                                                         Potential Paddy Power Gold Cup winner??

I really liked the run of Binge Drinker, the Rebecca Curtis winner of a maiden hurdle at Worcester on Wednesday. I had this horse in my tracker as one Curtis had urged readers of the highly informative ATR Stable Tours to keep an eye out for this season and in winning by 9L he certainly went some way to justifying his trainer's faith in him. It will be interesting to see where Curtis goes next with this one but look out for it wherever it goes.

Some losers for the week...firstly Philip Fenton who looks like reaching the end of his training career after being found guilty of possession of steroids and other banned substances. He has been fined, lost his Gigginstown horses and the punishment from the Irish Turf Club is yet to come. Rightly so...apparently they found enough steroid to dose 250 different horses, absolutely sickening behaviour and he has rightly been hung out to dry for this. I hope this sets a president for Drugs in the game, but I'm a bit concerned that this could only be the tip of the iceberg given the spate of drugs cases in the media recently. We can only wait and see and hope that these stories don't tarnish the reputation of the game too much but it certainly does not look good...at all.

                                           Disgraced trainer Philip Fenton

On a slightly lighter note let's look at some losers from the actual horse racing action on the track. Deputy Dan, a high class staying hurdler last year, made his comeback at Fontwell on Wednesday. I don't think he lost too much in going down to Virak over a trip too short and round a track that would have been plenty sharp enough. Deputy Dan jumped very well and whilst perhaps Oliver Sherwood will have to re-assess his sights this season it was no disaster of a performance and there are definitely wins to be had over fences this season.

Puffin Billy and Far West both went down at Exeter on this chasing debuts, being beaten well by Dunraven Storm, however with the form of the Nicholls horses not great thus far and Puffin Billy having been off injured for a long time I also wouldn't like to write the 2nd and 3rd placed horses off just yet even though they were very well beaten by the Philip Hobb's trained winner. Also on this card we saw a lot of losers in the Betfair in running markets as Go West Young Man took his name rather too literally in the 4:10. Jumping the last in the lead and looking for all the world (and 23K matched at 1.01) the winner Go West Young Man careered off to the West leaving Thundering Home, a 25/1 chance, to come and take the win. Go West Young Man eventually managed to finish 6th, incredible and definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it already.

We've got some cracking action coming up this weekend from Aintree and Chepstow, with the Old Roan Chase the highlight of it all. I won't go into the action in too much depth as decs are not yet out for the races but I would urge readers to keep an eye on Spirit of Shankly in whatever race he turns up in (has engagements at Chepstow and Aintree) as he received some hugely positive words from his trainer in this weeks Racing Post Weekender. Sadly we won't see Kauto Stone in the Old Roan Chase, I was really keen to see how he would get on after the stable change, but the race still looks to be a very open contest and will be a great watch regardless. I'll be back to review the weekend cards at some point so thanks for reading this blog and speak soon!

It's all about the jumps for me - welcome back Cheltenham!

Cheltenham is back! The weekend just gone saw the first fixture of the 2014-15 National Hunt season stages at Cheltenham and we saw some cracking action with a few old favourites back on our screens. All the big yards were represented, however unfortunately Champion jockey AP McCoy was not, forced to sit out the weekend after a crashing fall a week or so ago.

Let's start with the first race on Friday, where no doubt Present View ran a cracking trial for the Paddy Power Chase back at this course in November. Despite not really respecting his hurdles (he is a far better chaser anyway) and losing a shoe he only went down a head in the finish. We can also definitely expect him to come on for the run and he will be a major player in the November feature race. Losing Blaklion before the start was annoying, I thought he would run a huge race as I was really impressed with him at Perth when the Twiston Davis tram were not really firing but there will be other days for this one. I'm not too sure what the official reason was for the withdrawal but something occurred down the start and he didn't jump off with the rest of them.
Court Minstrel continues to impress over fences, readily winning the 2 mile Novices chase, a task made easier by the fall of the interesting Un Ace. I believe Aiden Coleman was really keen on the chances of Un Ace at the Festival last year so I was interested to see how he would take to the larger obstacles and I'll be looking to see where Kim Bailey turns this one out next providing that fall hasn't left it's mark. We won't be seeing Court Minstrel for a while with Evan Williams keen to avoid the deep winter ground, however when he comes back in spring it will be fascinating to see how his jumping holds up when really put under pressure. Trainer Williams had held concerns over Court Minstrel's jumping given the way he took his hurdles but to date CM has jumped really well, albeit when willing rather easily.
Unfortunately the fancied mare Highland Retreat was a disappointment in the 3m 1/2f Novices Chase on the card which went to The Romford Pele of the Rebecca Curtis yard. He did well to see of Lamb or Cod, whose poor jump at the last was a factor in his defeat as it really knocked him off stride, but the Barry Geraghty ridden horse still ended up winning well.
The easiest winner of the day was probably seen in the Maiden Hurdle, where John Ferguson's Commissioned absolutely hosed up, beating the highly touted (but disappointing on hurdles debut) Ballebolley. Barry Geraghty won't have too many easier winners (until we see the return of Sprinter Sacre....) this season but it was good to see Ballybolley at least improve on his debut. We will certainly be hearing a lot more of the winner and possibly the 2nd horse this season.

Onto Saturday where the most fascinating race on paper for me before the action kicked off was the 3.10, a 2 mile Hurdle where we saw the reappearance of last year's Triumph Hurdle winner Tiger Roll, unlucky 4th in that race Calipto and the Swinton Hurdle winner Ballyglasheen clashing. Tiger Roll had to give weight to the field with his previous Grade 1 win, definitely no easy task. However Gordon Elliott's charge battled manfully, perhaps he wanted it more than Calipto, and came away with victory by half a length. Given the weight he was giving away this was a hugely impressive re-appearance from Tiger Roll, however Elliott has his stable in far better form than Paul Nicholls at the moment and that could be worth bearing in mind. I don't want to take anything away from the winner though and his Cheltenham record is looking more than a little formidable now. Maybe not this year but a potential Champion Hurdler of the future?
I can't believe that John's Spirit managed to win the Handicap Chase at 2.35 for the 2nd year in a row! I thought he was weighted out of it, but I can never get a handle on the Jonjo horses; they win when I don't think they can and lose when I back them! Persian Snow and the winner finished a good distance ahead of the rest of the pack and surely both will come back here in November where they could reoppose in the Paddy Power Gold Cup which John's Spirit won last year. This was the 2nd half of a double for O'Neil after In the Rough won the opener on the card, carrying on his good form from the summer. I often wonder if the summer form will stand up when the big boys come out to play but In The Rough has now won four on the bounce so has definitely earned his keep for the yard! However this was another winner missed by McCoy, for whom this recent absence has been very costly in terms of winners missed as he targets 300 for the season. By the time he comes back he could well have seen 20 horses he would have been riding go on to win; how costly will that be at the end of the season when looking at his final haul?
I was really pleased to see Ulzana's Raid win for Alan King in the 4.25. I had noticed that a horse he had previously beaten had gone on to improve a stone in the handicap since and under Wayne Hutchinson he has gone on to get the hat-trick up here. Carrying top weight and beating a field as impressively as he did here makes me think that there could still be wins to come for this horse when he steps up into graded company, perhaps even over fences in time.
Splash of Ginge was another Twister horse to bounce back from a  poor run at Perth earlier this season, showing how important stable form can actually be, as he beat his previous conqueror Ainsi Fideles by a good distance in the penultimate race on the card. Finally we saw an impressive winner of a flat race in the closing race on the card as Moon Racer absolutely bolted up by 12 lengths and could have won by 20. Favourite backers never had a moments doubt and anyone chasing the day's losses would certainly have been pleased if they had got on this one.

I must touch on the flat briefly though as it was amazing to see Noble Mission win the Champion's Stakes at Ascot on British Champions Day, a day that Sir Henry Cecil worked so hard to create and make a success of. Sir Henry had the great Frankel to help him get a winner on the day and it was marvellous and very emotional to see his Widow Lady Cecil take the big race on the card with Noble Mission. I'm sure there will be a few raised glasses at Warren Place tonight and well deserved too.

Many thanks for reading and I'll be back next week as the National Hunt season begins to take over from it's Flat counterpart. British Champions Day really marks the end of the Flat season for me, even though we have Racing Post Trophy day still to come the focus is definitely on the action over obstacles now. If you are reading this on Saturday evening/Sunday morning we even had the reappearance of the top hurdler The New One at Kempton on Sunday to look forward too, even at huge odds on it will still be great to see the Twiston-Davis stable star back out.

Good luck!

2 hugely contrasting news stories - its Goodbye to one and Hello to another!

This Saturday we received 2 huge and contrasting news stories onto our laps, one declaring the immediate retirement of a horse and one declaring a 2 time Arc winner would be staying in training. I know which one of these stories made me smile more! Certainly the news that Australia will not be illuminating British Champions day next weekend takes some of the gloss away from the event, and it is a shame that the so called 'Greatest Horse I've ever trained' - big claims by Aidan O'Brien - will not be kept in training next year so he can show us just how good he actually was. On the track this year there is a certain sense of what-could-have-been after being beaten on his final start in Ireland and not going for the Arc with the intent of turning up at Ascot this weekend. His Derby win was very impressive, and he had the speed to finish 3rd in a great renewal of the 2000 Guineas; if you really are as good as his trainer thinks why did O'Brien not actually send it to the Arc? I think he is clearly a very good horse however by retiring him now do really feel like there is a sense of unfulfilled potential here. It makes business sense to ship him off the stud, however there have been boundaries left unpushed with Australia and while his stud value may be better off protected the racecourse glory spared for the likes of Frankel and even Kingman this year by the racing public will not be adorned on Australia sadly.
While we said goodbye to one horse who we perhaps haven't seen the best of on the track we said hello again to one who we certainly have. In fact we have probably seen Treve at her best and worst on the racecourse in the same season, in the space of 2 runs even! This wonder mare, the two time Arc winner, will not be going for a third Arc after connections decided to keep her in training for next year. Fantastic news and it makes a really refreshing change to see connections go for more racecourse glory rather than going for the money that a breeding career would bring, especially when your mare has the trophy cabinet collection that Treve does. This surprised me even more with the well publicised health issues that Treve suffers from, and those that trainer Criquette Head-Maarek has done wonderfully well to overcome thus far. I really hope that this brave and bold decision by connections is rewarded next year and it will certainly add intrigue to the 2014-15 flat racing season.
Finally another welcome hello was said this weekend to young jockey Bryan Cooper, out since suffering a crashing fall at the Cheltenham festival last year. By all accounts his leg fracture was one of the worst the experts had seen so the fact that he is even back in the saddle is a huge achievement and speaks words of the desire and strength of Cooper. His one ride was Guitar Pete on Sunday; sadly for Cooper and his followers it wasn't a winning comeback, ironically beaten by the same horse that was Cooper's companion in that crashing fall! Horse racing; its a funny old game.
Talking of funny old games Sunday saw the running of the crazy Velka Pardubicka 4.25 mile jumps race in the Czech Republic. This race is absolutely fantastic and makes our Grand National look like it should be contested by the flat horses such are the ferocity of the fences that make up this legendary race. Amazingly there was even a 61 year old jockey who competed in this years renewal, Josef Vana, and impressively Vana managed to complete the course on his mount, however he couldn't add to his astonishing 8 wins as a jockey in the event already. This years renewal went to the hot favourite Orphee Des Blins, who was taking the event for the third time. However when you watch the race you can see why previous course form is so vital! I've attached some images of the obstacles the horses fence in this stamina test to this blog, and let me assure you it is worth taking ten minutes or so to watch the race on youtube!

We're building up to a cracking weekend for fans of both codes this weekend, with Future Champions Day on Friday, Champions Day on Saturday and the Showcase meet at Racing HQ - that's right Cheltenham is back and I can't wait for it. Should be a great weekend and one all racing fans will be awaiting with glee. Thanks for reading this week's musings and onwards we go!

A weekend for the Comeback King (and Queen!)

Wow. What a week of racing we have had the pleasure of seeing this weekend. And lets start with what will have been the undoubted highlight for many, and one where we saw one of the best training performances arguably ever from Criquette Head-Maarek, with the triumph of Treve in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. I certainly did not think I'd be writing that when I looked ahead to this weekend on Friday evening anyway as Treve had been well below par since winning the Arc this time last year in sensational fashion. Frankie Dettori had been jocked off and we were hearing stories of how our defending champion was suffering from foot and back issues, hardly stuff you want to hear if you are backing a horse in Europe's Premier Middle Distance Flat race. However none of this seemed to matter on the day as Thierry Jarnet accelerated away from the field to become the first back to back winner of the race since Alleged some 36 years ago, leaving Flintshire, pre-race favourite Taghrooda and Kingston Hill in her wake. Fabulous. Not so fabulous were the rides given to the Japanese horses, especially Harp Star who was dropped out rear as if he were in the Grand National! Both he and Just a Way fly home but Treve had long since gone, you can see the race for yourself below anyhow.

It was declared after the race that the filly is to be retired and Treve is bowing out on top after her stunning win, what a way to go. Any trainer in the land will have to go a long long way to match the training feat of Criquette Head-Maarek as well. As mentioned previously Treve had, prior to 3.30pm on the 5th October, been very disappointing for many this season with below par performances at both this track and Ascot. Voices were heard; "The allowances in her 3 year old year were huge, it will be too much for her without those", "She's had too many physical issues", "She just isn't the same horse as 2013". But who were we to doubt the genius of her French trainer to produce her on the day in shape to retain her crown. Simply marvellous and this is an Arc that will live long in the memory, not just for Treve's back to back victories but for the training feat of Criquette Head-Maarek to produce her in shape to do herself justice.

My other absolutely stunning moment of Arc Sunday was seeing Frankie Dettori delivery Olympic Glory with an absolutely astonishing late run to grab glory in the Prix de la Foret. For 6 furlongs of this 7 furlong trip you could have got any price you wanted on Richard Hannon's 4 year old taking victory in this group 1 race, however Dettori conjured a miracle from his locker to deliver Olympic Glory to victory and he actually won going away. It really does require you see a replay of the race a few times before you actually believe Frankie gets this one up!

The Arc came the day after we saw one time Champion Chaser Sizing Europe return to the track under new jockey Johnny Burke and this was another great moment for people who hold the admirable chaser in high regard, and there are a fair few of those. Henry de Bromhead set the training performance stakes fairly high on Saturday as he produced the old boy to win the PWC Champion Chase for the fourth year in a row - perhaps this was the weekend for back to back victories! At 12 years of age Sizing Europe is certainly no spring chicken but it was great to see him winning agin here and it got the juices flowing nicely for jumps racing as we start to see the familiar Cheltenham names returning to the track. I'm not sure if Sizing Europe will make it back to the home of jump racing again this year but we will get to see him soon in the Clonmel Oil Chase, where we will hopefully see another good showing from the veteran of the 2 mile Chasing scene.

There were too many other fantastic performances this weekend for me to mention them all here, I've just picked my favourite three that I'll take out of a great couple of days of Horse Racing, days that make you remember why we love the game so much! Limato was visually one of the most impressive winners of the weekend with his on-the-bridle, laughing at the opposition success at Redcar in the Two-year-old trophy and is certainly one to bear in mind through the winter months, If Henry Candy can get him to train on he will be excellent ammunition for the trainer to release in the 2015 flat racing season as he destroyed the field of this listed contest without Graham Lee even having to ask him the easiest of questions. Integral was given a great enterprising ride by Ryan Moore to take victory in the Sun Chariot at Newmarket, getting to the front early and never looking back while Pether's Moon beat off Enke and Parish Hall to take the Cumberland Lodge Stakes at a wet and windy Ascot, hardly typical flat racing weather (or at least not this summer!) It really has been a great weekend and one that all involved, independant of code of racing, can look back on with fond memories.

Once again thanks very much for reading!