First thing to mention this week is an omission from last week. Last Sunday saw a Tote Placepot dividend at Huntingdon of £32,922.60. Good work if you can get it!!
In the early hours of Tuesday, the race that stops the nation; the Melbourne Cup took place at Flemington. There was a shock result courtesy of Knights Choice who returned 100/1 to help the bookies satchels bulge more than usual. Ridden by Irish born jockey Robbie Dolan on his first ride in the race, and trained by Sheila Laxon who won the race back in 2001 for the first time. “Many Congratulations to all the connections.” Fairy tale stuff.
Wednesday was the day Sir Michael Stoute saddled his last runner Waldgeist at Nottingham. Unfortunately the filly trailed in last of the 12 runners. Sir Michael retires now at the age of 78 after a fantastic career with many highlights, patiently nurturing some great horses to big race success. He was Champion Trainer 10 times and won 16 British Classics including 6 Derby’s. He also achieved Classic and Group Race winners in Ireland, France, Japan, Dubai, Hong Kong and the Breeders Cup. “A true professional, he is highly respected in the game by his peers and the general racing public.” Happy retirement!
Thursday saw Newbury’s first National Hunt card of the season. Although not blessed with too many runners I think we saw a real promising horse win the bumper called El Cairos trained by Gary and Josh Moore and ridden by David Maxwell, who also owns this promising type. It will be interesting to see where they decide to go next with this son of No Risk At All.
On Friday the Bet MGM Haldon Gold Cup from Exeter was the highlight and the Joe Tizzard trained JPR One obliged under Brendan Powell. The Tingle Creek at Sandown next month may be the next stop but this horse needs decent ground to show it’s best. Bryony Frost popped over from France where she is now based, having been retained by “the double green team” of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede. Asian Spice trained by her father, Jimmy, won nicely in the mares handicap hurdle for “Team Frost”. Friday also saw the start of the Dubai Carnival which takes in 16 meetings from 8th November to the 14th March, with the $12,000,000 Dubai World Cup meeting taking place on 5th April next year.
The weekend was filled with good racing and milestones. Lucinda Russell trained her 1000th winner up at Kelso, while at the same meeting long standing owner and great supporter of northern and Scottish jump racing, Raymond Anderson Green had his 500th winner. The Major can remember him having flat horses with Michael Jarvis back in the 1980/90s.
Doncaster brought down the curtain of the UK flat turf season, and the betting race of the day, the November Handicap went to Lord Melbourne trained by Ralph Beckett and ridden by Jack Doughty. Ralph has had a season to remember for sure. The day also saw the retirement of Jimmy Quinn after 40 years, and over 1500 winners in the saddle. Ironically his first ride was also at Doncaster. His biggest winners were achieved in the Lincoln twice and the Group 1 Nunthorpe at York with Kingsgate Native who won the race as a juvenile.
Godolphin also announcd an addition to their chosen trainers for next season and the lucky man is Roger Varian, who has lost the patronage of Amo Racing and Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum recently. The Major’s opinion was that Roger was due a “bit of rub” in his favour.
Action “over the sticks” saw the Dave Pipe trained King Turgeon follow up his Chepstow success over the national fences in the Boylesports Grand Sefton at Aintree, after racing prominently from the off for jockey Jack Tudor. The Badger Beer Handicap Chase at Wincanton went to topweight Al Dancer who made just about all, and after being left clear 4 out won unchallenged by 10 lengths for Sam Thomas and conditional jockey Callum Pritchard at 25/1. Another result for the old enemy!!
The bumper 9 race card at Chelmsford on Saturday evening ended in chaos. The tractor enlisted to drag the starting stalls off the track broke down and was unable to complete the task. Fortunately the jockeys had some prior warning. They pulled up their mounts before they could colide with the stalls and tractor just after turning into the home straight. Thank god it rolled out as it did. We could very easily have had several injured jockeys and horses or worse.
Nothing to report on Sunday. The Major went out for a long boozy lunch and had a steady walk home.