A very wet and windy day in West Sussex , a hectic time of year with the weather putting a stop to many plans over the last few weeks for our industry raning from frozen tracks to highwinds. Then all the races are over subscribed as we have a queue of horses ready to run and we carry on.
Last week Koenigsstern put a solid perfomance in to finish 4th at Huntingdon, but was not on his best form and possibly found the ground not to his liking. He is a super genuine, tough and honest horse though and did not disgrace himself by any means.
Yesterday at Fontwell, the very heavy ground caught out "Leonidass" in the bumper He stopped very quickly with his breathing, he gurgled and displaced his soft pallate. James did absolutely the right thing to pull him up, to avoid further stress. He is a lovely horse and has been working very well at home with good horses. So we will book him in to see the best Wind Operation Surgeoun Ben Brain near Cheltenham and take it from there. Hopefully we can get that sorted and then onwards and upwards.
Today we have four horses on the way to Plumpton Racecourse. Drumheller for the Vivid Racing Partenrship runs in the first race the maiden 2mile 4 hurdle, he will have a handicapp mark after this run and then he will run in handicaps which is where we hope to see the best of him. The ground may be a bit hard work for him. He is still young but this is all part of his journey/education and we will learn alot about him today. Niall Houlihan takes the ride and Harry parks will be leading up today who rides him a lot at home too.
Seconly we have River Tyne running in the 3.20pm 3 mile 1 handicap hurdle/ under James Davies for Tony & Holly Allan . George Sturgis will be leading up today and she is having a spin back over hurdles. Fingers crossed for a good solid run. She is a super consistent mare and 5 horses go to post today.
Then in the 3.50pm we have Northern Poet running in the 3 mile 1 handicap chase, the ground may be against him today. We will take a view after the first two races to see if we run him and Eliza Dolittle later on in the day. He is really a good ground horse but has won on soft and is older now and often as they get older they can cope with the softer ground. Northern Poet is owned by The Hope Springs Partnership and James Davies takes the ride. Kirsty Huff will be leading up today.
Last but not least is Eliza Dolitle who runs in the 4.20pm 2 mile handicap hurdle. Tabitha Worsley takes the ride, the only slight questionmark will be the ground today as she normally runs on soft /good to soft. She likes the track and is small and mighty. So if she does run today....Best of luck to owners Mike and Angela.
Good Luck to all connections and Team Gifford. Also a BIG SHOUT OUT to all our lads and lasses working their butts off this testing wind and rain.
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