Hollie orders up a double at flat finale
HOLLIE Doyle has firmly established herself as one of the leading riders in the UK and she rode another two winners at the final flat meeting of the season at Ffos Las on Sunday. She was successful aboard Red Vineyard and Mister Bluebird.
Pundits have been complaining about small fields recently, a situation which in many parts of the UK was exacerbated by a prolonged dry spell. We had no such problems on Sunday, where 80 runners competed in eight races. Occasional punters who back horses on the basis of family names will have been pleased by the 1-2-3 in the sixth race – Beryl Burton, Wow William and My Boy Charles.
In the two-year-old maiden, a Ron Harris-trained gelding showed promise by outrunning his 200-1 starting price. My Name’s Howard was prominent from the start of the seven-furlong race before fading late on. A drop in trip might be worth a try.
Four of the 11 runners in the five-furlong dash were trained in Wales, but the best the home team could manage was Harris’s The Daley Express in second place. He’s seven now, and not the force of old, yet he keeps on earning place money.
There was a great turnout on Sunday in line with consistently strong attendances since spectators returned to the sport in July. The next meeting at Ffos Las is the Welsh Champion Hurdle on Saturday, October 16.
The Welsh-owned Pyledriver, whose season since winning the Coronation Cup has been interrupted with minor niggles, is back in full training, but not in time for a tilt at Sunday’s Arc de Triomphe. Instead, he is being prepared for Munich’s Grosser Preis von Bayern in November.
David Evans’s useful two-year-old Bastogne was second in a nursery at Newmarket last week. He has yet to finish out of the first four in seven races.
His stablemate Wind Your Neck In went into several notebooks on account of his running-on third at a big price at Salisbury. At the same track a week later he was strongly fancied, only to be pipped at the post. He could make it third time lucky at the same course on Thursday.
The Bowens were among the winners at Perth last week. Fairlawn Flyer, trained by Peter and ridden by James, took the threemile handicap hurdle on Thursday. Sean scored at the same fixture aboard Go Another One and Clondaw Hollow.