17 March 2008 Holderness - Dalton Park
Ask Bobby: made amends by landing the Men's Open
Ask Bobby, whose Thorpe Lodge fall left Guy Brewer with a badly broken collarbone, made amends by winning the Volkswagen Touareg Men's Open in good style. The horse had been entered several times since but had not run due to the fast ground. "He's been bored off his trolley at home," said Mary Sowersby, who trains him for husband Mike, clerk of the course at Dalton Park.
Prior to making his own return to the track, Guy's schooling session with Ask Bobby had not gone as intended, his mount obviously considering it beneath his dignity to be asked to negotiate anything less than a proper steeplechase fence. "He refused at one of the baby fences, and I fell off and landed on the collarbone," he admitted, "but he jumped the big ones perfectly."
Guy will now be rain-dancing until the Touareg final in May, as he considers that Ask Bobby will be ideally suited by the test which Towcester provides.
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The Sowersby's were in the thick of things, as at the start of the day Sally Ireland, who works for Mike, had recorded her first success in the Members' race on Celioso.
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Mike had the course in good condition for the meeting, so he was more than a little disappointed when, after two incidents early in proceedings, the jockeys asked the stewards to take out the open ditch for the remainder of the day, a request which was granted.
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It was a waste of time for anybody who was not named Steve, or a variation thereof, to line up for the Maiden, which had to be split on the day after declarations exceeded the safety factor.
In Division One, in-form jockey Steve Magee teamed up with trainer Stephen Wiles to score with The Hussey's Duke, while Division Two went to Stephen Charlton on Steve Jones's Go Moss Go.
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Stephen was deputising on Go Moss Go for intended partner Nigel Tutty, who incurred a slight back injury in a fall from the chestnut at Charm Park the previous weekend - "He jumped off," grinned Steve Jones.
On two counts though, Nigel, was not complaining. His two earlier booked mounts had both put their stand-in riders on the floor, "So I wouldn't have been fit to ride the bloody thing anyway," he pointed out!
He also refused to accept the winning rider's bottle of champagne offered to him by Stephen Charlton, presumably on the grounds that the money he had extracted from the bookmakers was more than enough for him to buy his own.
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"I was beginning to wonder where the next winner was coming from," admitted Miles Seston, whose visits to the unsaddling enclosure since early February have been on placed horses as opposed to victorious ones. It arrived in the shape of Young Claude, whose success in the Confined owed a lot to Miles's strength in a finish.
"He didn't like racecourses in his younger days so we'll probably stick to Pointing," said handler Stuart Beaumont of the winner.
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Ride of the day was that by Rachel Clark on Golden Streak, runner-up to Young Claude, who held every chance at the last and was just kept at bay on the run-in. Rachel did incredibly well to survive the first two fences at which her mount was extremely hairy, and from a very unpromising position with a circuit to run he was the only danger to Young Claude in the home straight.
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The highs and lows of racing were made patently clear in the Confined, in which French Envoy, carrying the Amicelli colours, broke a shoulder and had to be put down.
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"She's not the easiest to train because she's so big. She'll probably be eight or nine before she's at her best." Tina Jackson, successful in the TBA/MFHA Mares' Maiden on Miss Tosca, who may be sent over Hurdles sooner rather than later.
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Network Oscar's Restricted victory under Oliver Greenall has left elder brother Thomas wondering if he will soon be £10 lighter in the pocket. Thomas has bet his father that Network Oscar will not win three times this season, so one more success will mean he has to pay up.
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Duchess Account, who will be retired to stud at the end of the season, is obviously determined to go out with a flourish, and she took the Ladies' Open for the second time in three years to give connections a little compensation for Skew Whip going lame in the Open.
