OUT IN THE STICKS
Jeremy Grayson gets out and about with his notebook
SOUTHWELL, 13 July (Good)
2m4f88yds (+96yds) 0-110 Handicap Chase (class 4)
As switches to handicap chasing go, PERCUSSION’s could hardly have been quicker in coming, not even seven weeks after making his racecourse debut in a Worcester novices’ hurdle. His impressive physical stature probably goes some way towards explaining that accelerated process, likewise the abundance of highly winnable class 4s at this time of year; and a clean-jumping, staying-on 2l second put down an excellent marker over fences first time up. Laura Morgan has quickly proven highly capable of running up sequences (Fire Away, J’Ai Froid and Socialist Agenda all racked up hat-tricks in the 2020-21 campaign), and this Evan Hanbury owner-bred son of Malinas can equally be placed to advantage by this smart handler at 2m4f-3m all summer and beyond, with novice handicapper status over both sets of obstacle intact until next April.
UTTOXETER, 14 July (Good)
2m3f207yds (+45yds) 0-100 Novices’ Handicap Hurdle (class 5)
Defeats of 48l, 53l and 43l in her qualifying starts over 2m didn’t augur well for LADY P ahead of this switch to handicaps and half-mile hike in distance. She offered far more encouragement in the debuted cheekpieces, however, and as with the runner-up her eventual 5l defeat was owed mostly to her having too much ground to make up from rear in a slowly run race. Clearly nothing like as good as her dam’s brother Forpadydeplasterer, there’s nevertheless a small handicap to be won with Jake Coulson’s Sans Frontieres mare (perhaps against her own sex) when tactics better match the pace bias of the race, and with this 0-100 company likely to remain open to her for the foreseeable future.
WORCESTER, 15 July (Good)
2m4f 0-110 Mares’ Handicap Chase (class 4)
It was the superior staying power of the winner (already successful at up to 3m) that did for MAKETY rather than any particular shortcomings in her jumping technique, on her way to a perfectly serviceable 5l second on her first attempt over fences. Not far behind Epatante on her hurdling debut two and a half years ago but largely treading water in that sphere until a below-par spring campaign, the one-time winner of a Hereford pointto-point Flat race has rejoined Oliver Sherwood from Colin Heard on a most competitive mark judged against her previous peak efforts, and her effectiveness at around 2m4f augurs well for her new vocation considering the number of mares’ events over that sort of trip. A return to good to soft ground wouldn’t present any issues. 2m Maiden Hurdle (class 4)
You’d have to go back to the 2011-12 season to find the last time Chris Dwyer saddled a winner over jumps, albeit the hurdles debut of LONDON EYE here did represent just an eighteenth runner in this code for the Newmarket handler since then. Ironically trained by the rather more jumps-oriented Harry Fry previously but only ever raced on the Flat by him, it was no surprise to see the Australia gelding being made a lot of use of over a trip 2f shorter than that of his close Pontefract third only a month earlier. The clear conclusion to draw from his eventual near-5l defeat is that even assertive tactics around a galloping track won’t render 2m enough of a stamina test in this sphere, but the raw material is definitely there to alight upon an opportunity in a similar summer maiden at 2m4f or beyond. Good or quicker ground appears to be important, notwithstanding one reasonably good-quality effort on heavy over two years back.
MARKET RASEN, 17 July (Good)
2m1f43yds (+126yds) 0-115 Handicap Chase (class 4)
This was not a Summer Plate meeting with as many to take for the future as is often the case, with the feature events largely contested by horses kept busy of late and/or close to where the assessor wants them now. This concluding contest, however, bore
witness to a most respectable start over fences for MAKKA PAKKA, whose jumping held up fine despite the runaway winner Rooster Cogburn trying to take all rivals out of their comfort zone from flagfall. Jumping fences in Lincolnshire was presumably never part of the original plan for this nephew of multiple Group 1 scorer Twice Over, and last autumn’s debut for Dr Richard Newland (on his sole other start for 26 months) didn’t offer abundant hope. He’s an individual with plenty of size about him, however, and his smart handler can be trusted to find him the right opening this summer, perhaps around a more galloping 2m-2m3f than this. Ground closer to yielding suited him as well any during his previous Irish career.
NEWTON ABBOT, 18 July (Good to firm, good in places)
2m2f110yds (+75yds) Maiden Hurdle (class 3)
Although the product of the same sire in Cacique as the 2020 Summer Plate heroine Really Super, BEHOLDEN
isn’t especially bred for jumps, being a nephew to Prix Jean Prat winner Mutual Trust from an immediate family most heavily laden with winning success at a mile and below. He’d started out in bumpers, however, has the physical scope of one with a future over jumps, and for all his clumsiness over hurdles so far (again evident here en route to a near-5l second) has managed to place on all three outings in his current vocation. Newton
Abbot had been the scene of the Jamie Snowden-trained gelding’s winning racecourse debut and sharp tracks evidently suit, but he hadn’t missed by much around Chepstow’s far more galloping 1m4f on the Flat, and perhaps an experiment around a similar course may give him time to organise himself into a better jumping rhythm. Either way, a mid-ranking handicap at today’s trip or further ought to be well within compass once all basics are got right.
2m167yds (+62yds) Juvenile Hurdle (class 3)
Nominative determinism at play in this early season 3yo event, with both the penalised winner Scrappy Jack (the middle leg of unprecedented jumps trebles on the card for both Bill Turner and Harry Kimber) and the half-length runner-up FRED BEAR contesting the finish despite having compiled less than perfect rounds of jumping. Newton Abbot’s very short run-in is famously unforgiving of the sort of last-flight error the Kodi Bear gelding made, but for which he’d surely have made count the 9lb pull with his old rival and given his sire a first ever jumps success. Although nothing that’s likely to give the better juveniles too much to worry about come the autumn, he can become the latest in a succession of ex-Mick Channon inmates that Sheena West can find a race for whilst the competition remains suitably slack, perhaps assisted by a concentration aid (untried to date in either code of racing).
3m2f105yds (+109yds) 0-110 Handicap Hurdle (class 4)
There wouldn’t ordinarily be a lot positive to take from a fading near-18l last of three finishers in a weak race for the banding, but the fact WHATSTHECRAICJACK lined up at all and completed seemingly without setback will prove vindication enough for trainer Philip Hobbs and owner-breeder Mike Ford to have kept the faith following a nineteen-month layoff. Still only five starts into his career and yet to finish within 17l of the winner, perhaps the reason for the perseverance lies in the probability it was always going to be about fences for this nephew of Lincolnshire National scorer Merlin’s Wish, for whom a switch to staying handicap chases surely can’t be far off now. Notably keen early on, as perhaps to be expected, take this grey gelded son of Crosspeace to go close in a similar calibre of race over fences sometime this summer, if and when proving more tractable.
CARTMEL, 19 July (Good)
2m6f31yds (+30yds) 0-100 Handicap Hurdle (class 5)
A falsely run affair had conspired against SNOWY BURROWS on her first outing beyond 2m4f at Sedgefield the time before. The Montmartre mare got to the head of affairs in good enough time on this occasion despite a more patient ride, however, and simply had to give best to a thriving Jennie Candlish inmate recording a fourth success in his last six runs. A good 9l clear of the remainder, and with the likelihood of longer trips than todays being within compass,
Rebecca Menzies ought to be able to place this niece of Prix La Haye Jousselin hero Lagunak to advantage in low-grade staying handicaps hereafter. Effectiveness on any turf surface other than good remains unproven, however.