This weeks update is rather low on racing content as the week was decimated by the cold weather and 13 meetings in the UK and Ireland were lost.
Monday saw Ayr and Wolverhampton take place. Ayr saw Nick Alexander and Lucinda Russell both train 2 winners each.
The following day a 9 race card from Wolverhampton was the only offering. The novice race for three and four year olds saw a striking debut from Treasure Fleet. This 800,000 guineas son of Kingman, is already gelded but looks to have lots of promise going forward. The Godolphin owned and Charlie Appleby trained charge dwelt at the start but came home very strongly under Callum Shepherd.
All scheduled meetings went ahead on Wednesday while Thursday saw 2 all-weather cards. Friday saw the same with all-weather action from Newcastle and Dundalk keeping the show on the road!
Ffos Las and Chelmsford were added to the Saturday fixture list to ensure some racing taking place. At Ffos Las the Towton Novice Chase was transfered from the abandoned Wetherby meeting, credit to the authorities for doing this. Ben Pauling and Ben Jones continued their great season to date as Handstands took this Grade 2 by 9 lengths from only other finisher Lord Of Thunder. Over at Fairyhouse the Grade 3 Handicap Chase was taken by the Gavin Cromwell trained The King of Prs under Conor Stone-Walsh. Remarkably Cromwell trained the second and third too in this competitive race, and capped a fine day for the yard who sent out four winners on the card.
Sunday saw Punchestown as the only meeting to survive. The highlight on the card was the Grade 2 Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle and this went to Salvator Mundi who hadnt been seen for 8 months since winning a juvenile hurdle at Tipperary. According to Paul Townend he raced fresh and his jumping wasn’t his best but got the job done for trainer Willie Mullins.
It has been a frustrating week with the weather causing havoc. Let’s hope temperatures rise and racing gets back to normal next week.