12 May 2008 Melton Hunt Club - Garthorpe
Mick Easterby: bought Bow School from Howard Johnson
Not many, if any, riders can claim a run out, a victory and an unseat with the same horse in the course of a day, and in that order, but Oliver Greenall managed it with Chorizo. The odds-on favourite negotiated just three fences in the Novice Championship before running out at the next - "He was always going to go, and I couldn't stop him," said Oliver - but after a check by the vet, and with permission from the stewards, he was declared for the Men's Open two races later.
This time, Oliver kept his mount away from the inside rail, to the extent that he was on the wide outside on the run-in. A few yards from the finish he spotted the paddock exit and ducked left, but Oliver skilfully manoeuvred him across the line, just ahead of the gallant Coolefind, before sliding gracefully to the ground.
Chorizo, who was scoring his sixth success of the campaign, was bought by Oliver at Doncaster. "I like buying from Paul Nicholls because they're always well schooled," was his reasoning.
**********
Oliver had earlier taken the Intermediate on Bow School, owned like Chorizo by Eric Brook. "I bought him off Howard Johnson and I thought he'd robbed me, but I'm beginning to think he might be worth what I paid for him," said Mick Easterby, father of winning trainer David. "I actually bought five, and two of them were lame," he added. "Four of them have won and the one I kept for myself hasn't!"
Bow School, who his handler considers to be better going left-handed, has triumphed on every completion, but has not always been foot-perfect. "We'll think about Hurdling, but he jumped the ditches really well so maybe bigger fences would suit him," reflected David.
Eric is the ideal owner, trusting his trainer to make the plans, but he may not have had David's latest scheme at the back of his mind. With Oliver now 15 clear of Richard Woollacott in the men's championship, David was looking ahead when he loudly announced "Eric said he's going to buy a table at the dinner."
**********
Were there to be an award for the recovery of the season, the leading contender would be Jill Dawson, who had a very close look at the grass on the landing side of the sixteenth when her Ladies' Open partner Vingis Park ignored her request to take off and put in a short one. Before the collective gasp from the crowd had time to subside, Jill had miraculously hauled herself back into the saddle and by the next fence was back in front, a lead which Vingis Park held to the post despite a spirited challenge from Oh So Lively.
"We'll keep the jockey riding for another year or two if she wins like that," laughed Jill's husband Mike. "That was like a 20 year old, not a 50 year old!"
Because Vingis Park had been working well at home prior to his debut Jill had left off the blinkers with which he ran under Rules, "but he wouldn't have blown a candle out afterwards," said Mike, so the headgear was promptly re-applied.
***********
Chorizo's early exit in the Novices' race left Burn Brook to turn the contest into a procession. Bought as a foal, Burn Brook, who comes from the family of the smart staying Hurdler Anzum, "just didn't grow," said owner-rider Richard Armson, "but she's all heart, and it's like sitting on a time bomb."
Richard's weekend had commenced at 4am on Saturday, but a trip to Yorkshire paid dividends on two counts. Young son Philip won the First Ridden class, and also qualified for the Royal International, in the British Show Pony Society's Area 3B - "He's two stone better than me already," grinned his father - and Richard himself landed the Bilsdale Men's Open on Gabor.
***********
The Greenall family were also on the mark in the opening Conditions race with the Cherry Coward-trained Glenelly Gale, partnered by Oliver's younger brother Toby. "Don't forget to weigh in," Cherry instructed the jockey. "He doesn't always so he might not!" she smiled
***********
The timekeeper's stopwatch seemed to be on autopilot, as no fewer than five of the six three mile races were announced as having been run in a time of 6min5sec.
**********
"I needed that," was Tom Ellis's comment after he had won the 2m4f Maiden on Sylvia Edmunds and John Busby's Seaplace. Tom, who had ridden his last winner on Easter Monday, had picked the wrong one in the Maiden at Kingston Blount the previous day and had to watch the one he rejected, Checked Shirt, finish some way ahead of him.
Fortunately, Tom had not sloped off home in disgust after his first fence departure in the opener, because he got the call for Seaplace as a late replacement for Stuart Morris, who was kicked on the knee in an earlier fall. "Stuart's done all the work with him," said Sylvia, who described her charge as "an old woman's ride at home."
**********
Richard Hunnisett, who rode his 50th career winner on Harapour at Dingley the previous weekend, made it 49 between the flags when Cheyne easily won the second of the Conditions' races. Richard's socialising during the week meant that he was slightly overweight, and he was out on the golf course earlier in the day, so "I told him to play in a sweat suit," laughed trainer Gerald Bailey's wife Caroline.
"He's a bit quirky," she added, presumably referring to Cheyne rather than his owner. The chesnut was in desperate need of a breathing operation when Richard got him, and since then he has scored three times.