WHAT an amazing end to a thrilling season. It has been an amazing journey this season and I am proud to have been a part of it.
Saturday played host to the thrilling end to what has been a fantastic season.
The day started with a lead of around £50k. We sent a 19-strong team to Sandown in an all-out bid to for that 10th championship.
After the first few races the lead remained around £40k and next up was the Bet365 Gold Cup. Both yards saddled two runners apiece. Harry Cobden claimed 5lb off of Just A Par and it was very much a case of horses for courses as he reproduced last year’s effort just failing by the shortest of margins. With Southfield Theatre’s fine fourth it was confirmed in the aftermath that the title race was over and Paul was crowned champion trainer.
The icing was firmly put on the cake by a 1-2 in the following race with Ptit Zig beating the highly consistent Silsol. A terrific end to a hard season.
It has been well documented that we lack the “superstars” at the minute and with only two Grade 1 winners throughout the whole season, just emphasises how much graft went into winning the championship.
The 122 winners and over £2.4 million prize money tell the tale of how it was done. And all eyes are firmly set on regaining the crown next season.
The atmosphere in the yard has been tense but there is a massive sense of accomplishment. Celebrations were rife and spanned through the weekend.
On Sunday I was very privileged to attend a celebration lunch with Paul, family and close friends. It really is an incredible feat and a great team effort.
Saturday was also a sad day as we said goodbye to Tom Jonason. Assistant to Paul for the past three seasons, Tom was a hugely popular figure. I was lucky to get to work closely with Tommy for the past two seasons in my role as pupil assistant and he was a great man to work with.
Harry Derham is going to step into the assistant trainer position and I have no doubt he will do every bit as good a job. I am really looking forward to the season ahead working with Harry and striving towards an 11th title!
NEW RECRUITS
I got a lot of pleasure out of El Bandit winning his novice hurdle last week in Warwick. Bred by Padhraic Doran in Co Wexford he has progressed with every run and won in nice style last week.
From a strong pedigree he is a lovely, big horse by Milan and is a half-brother to The Outlaw whom I am very attached to. Hopefully now El Bandit will continue to progress further.
Last Tuesday I headed up to Ludlow with one runner. We ran a first time out bumper horse called Coup De Pinceau. He had big shoes to fill as over the past fortnight we had five first time out bumper winners from five runners.
By Buck’s Boum who is a brother to the superstar Big Buck’s, his home work was good and we were confident. Owned by Colm Donlon, he was given a lovely educational ride by Nick Scholfield tracking the leaders throughout, he challenged up the straight before quickening nine lengths clear to score in impressive fashion.
Just because the season is over doesn’t mean we are sitting down twiddling our thumbs. There is a lot of work to be done over the summer months to prepare for the upcoming season.
As always at the end of the season we say goodbye to staff and welcome more new faces. We are always looking for new staff to join our team and anybody interested in a position in Team Ditcheat should write to Hannah in the office.
So for now it’s goodbye from me and I hope these Ditcheat Diaries have been informative and I thank you all for taking time to check in to every issue.