REVIEW
ALBRIGHTON
WESTON PARK
Saturday 11th February 2006
by Arthur Shone
What a difference a fortnight made to
the conditions at Weston Park! Two weeks ago, the course had to
survive two inspections because of frost in the ground before going
ahead. Yesterday there were no problems and we had some much needed
rain, in fact it hardly stopped throughout the days sport. After
the second race, the clerk of the course Martin Kemp changed the
going to “Good” and it was clear from the times that
the rain was getting into the ground, with testing conditions
towards the end of the card for both horses and
racegoers.
Hanley Swan trainer Andy Hobbs trained three
winners in a day at Maisemore Park twice last season and he
completed a hat trick of winners for the first time here at Weston
Park. Two of those wins were for owner Clive Hitchings, who is his
landlord.
Premium First provided the first leg in the
Intermediate. The handsome son of Naheez made every yard from flag
fall under Julian Pritchard to record a bloodless victory over Earl
Of Buckingham by 25 lengths. Abbey Days would have been second had
he not fallen at the last fence. Hitchings was delighted with his
winner when I spoke to him afterwards, he said,” Heather (
Dalton) bought him for me at the Doncaster Sales and she trained
him for me under rules, where he won a bumper. I decided that I
would like to run him in point to points and his main target will
be the Hiscox final on May 3 rd at Cheltenham now that he has
qualified.”
The second leg came in the Mens’ Open
with the impressive Saint Reverien who quickened up readily two
from home under Adrian Wintle to beat the area champion horse
Darnil with Richard Burton in the plate by 15 lengths, easing down.
Hobbs said afterwards that his charge had now earned a crack at
Lady Dudley Cup, the holy grail of pointing, at Chaddesley Corbett
and on this evidence it is going to take a good horse to lower the
Silver Rainbow gelding’s colours.
Hobbs went on to complete the treble with
Rathcoole Dancer in the Restricted, who quickened up nicely from
three out to beat Tengrand, under Richard Burton, by 20 lengths
with Joe Lively a further 15 lengths back in third. The winner
provided 19 year old Adam Brown with his first ever success as a
rider. He missed most of last season with a broken leg and to round
off a good day for the Brown family the horse is owned by his
father Adrian.
After two seconds, the national and area
champion rider Richard Burton found the winners enclosure with
Rebel Lad in the first division of the Confined Maiden, who beat
the only other finisher Hot Chocolat under Tom Houlbrook by 3
lengths. The winner was unlucky here a fortnight ago when falling
at the last fence with the race in the bag. Winning trainer
Caroline Robinson was pleased that her charge had put in a clear
round this time and she now plans to give him a break before
finding a Restricted race for him. The runner up from the
Summerwood yard of Gordie Edwards should not be long in winning on
this evidence. Rebel Lad is owned by a syndicate from Clitheroe
consisting of Marian Renaghan, Simon Nightingale and Richard
Lane.
Half an hour later trainer Gordie Edwards
found himself in the winners enclosure following the very
comfortable success of Badger under Ben Shaw who found a nice turn
of foot from two out for a 5 length victory over Minigaff and Gary
Hanmer. Blazing Saddles was a further 8 lengths back in third.
Edwards yard was plagued by the dreaded virus last season and it
was no wonder the first thing the trainer said when he greeted his
winner was, “We needed that.” The horse is owned
jointly by the trainer and his former next door neighbour from
Walcot, Liz Bayley, who was venturing into racehorse ownership for
the first time and yesterday was her first runner. The day before
the race rider Ben Shaw had crashed into her car and written it
off, he told her that he’d make it up to her at Weston Park
and he was true to his word.
There was a cracking finish to the Ladies
Open between the prolific winner Upton Adventure under Emma James
and Titus Bramble with Claire Allen in the plate. After a prolonged
battle, it was only on the run in that the latter prevailed by two
lengths. Double Account was a further 12 lengths back in third. The
winner is trained by one of the all time great trainers of pointers
Dick Bainbridge and Allen, who was the national champion rider last
season, will celebrate her 20 th birthday a day after this
fixture.
The opening Members race was a non event
because it was a walk over. The only horse to turn up was the
Captain Jack, who is trained at Wolverhampton by Paul Jones ridden
by Gary Hanmer for owner Michael Parr. The French bred gelding had
won previously last month at Higham.
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