The Cheltenham Festival has come and gone and thankfully we got on the scoresheet courtesy of a 1-2 with Pacha Du Polder winning the Foxhunter from Wonderful Charm. Ridden by Bryony Frost, daughter of Grand National winning jockey Jimmy, Bryony is a full-time member of staff here at Ditcheat and it’s great to see her hard work pay off.
Other festival highlights were the incredible run from Saphir Du Rheu to finish fifth in the Gold Cup and he definitely enhanced his Grand National chances. Bouvreuil also ran with great credit to finish third and for a third consecutive festival he has been knocking at the door and hopefully one day the door will open.
The festival wasn’t didn’t go all our way, Nicky Henderson’s good run saw him soar to the top of the trainers’ championship. There is a gap of roughly £130,000 but and it’s a case of déjà vu with last season.
Last year we had team Mullins to beat and came out of Cheltenham behind and now this year we have another battle on our hands.
The good run of the yard will certainly help and last weekend we had five winners from seven runners. Warriors Tale has really knuckled down and got his act together and won his third chase of the season in Newbury.
The bandwagon rolled on to our local Wincanton where we ran five horses and had three winners. Antartica De Thaix stole the headlines and provided owner Dan McDonald a double for the weekend. This mare is highly progressive since switching to chasing and this was her third consecutive win, by a whopping 22 lengths.
Winningtry got back on the score sheet for Trevor Hemmings, previously a bumper winner at the venue he scored under a strong Sammy T ride. Sammy is riding with great confidence at the minute and he showed that by making all on Copain De Claisse in the opener. Copain’s win was a seasonal landmark as it helped us surpass the £2 million mark for the year.
At the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale during the festival, we bought three new additions to the team. The Dellercheckout from the Monbeg Syndicate is a lovely son of Getaway who won his maiden in Lismore. He has settled in well and is an exciting horse for next season.
Western Honour is a Farmaclaffey winner of a five-year-old maiden from the Stuart Crawford team. We have a nice team of mares in Ditcheat at the minute and hopefully our third purchase, Posh Trish will further strengthen that team. A big daughter of Stowaway, she won her maiden in Lemonfield for Shark Hanlon. They are three nice additions to the team and fingers crossed they will head back to Cheltenham one day.
Now the focus is all on Aintree. The schooling field has been kitted out with Aintree-style fences. We have five runners being aimed at the Grand National. Saphir Du Rheu looks like he will be the mount of Sammy and after his fine Gold Cup run, he has to have a great chance if he stays the trip.
One horse who will definitely stay is Vicente. The saviour of last season by winning the Scottish National, he has recently been bought by Trevor Hemmings. He will be ridden by Brian Hughes.
Le Mercurey is a horse with a lot of class as he showed by his fine second to Native River at Newbury. He jumps great and fingers crossed we get good ground. Now owned by the Thompsons, he will run a big race for Sean Bowen.
Just A Par saves his best performances for April and he showed he still retains all his ability when winning at Newbury. He is due to be sold at the Aintree Sale on the Thursday and will give Harry Cobden a ride he won’t forget.
Last but not least is Wonderful Charm who was second in the Cheltenham Foxhunter; he jumps well comes here in great form.
But it’s not only about the National and in the other races we have great chances. As De Mee is on course for the Topham having won the Sefton Chase, while Pacha Du Polder bids to follow up in the Foxhunters.
For more information on the team please check out Paul’s betfair blog at https://betting.betfair.com/horse-racing/paul-nicholls