Page 21 - The Game April 2006

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, April 2006 21
As racing over jumps reached a high with the staging of ~ The Scribe ~ in the Gold Cup with War Of Attrition leading home
the big Cheltenham festival meeting in England in mid March those connected with the flat were delighted to see their 2006 season kick off in Redcar and on the Curragh.
The English Lincolnshire Handicap is the first big race of the season and although usually run at Doncaster it was switched to Redcar on this occasion. The going was soft and the straight eight furlongs proved a real test of stamina.
Victory went to Blythe Knight which was a 22/1shot and was ridden by Graham Gibbons for new trainer John Quinn. This gelding had previously been trained by Ed Dunlop and gained a reputation for being ungenuine.
However, the change of stable has transformed him and Quinn instructed his rider to coax his mount along during the race. This he did until hitting the front entering the final furlong but he was all out at the
end to hold off the challenge of Royal Island.
The Redcar stewards surprisingly decided that the jockey had “used his whip with excessive force” and gave him a one day suspension.
In Ireland racing commenced at Headquarters and the going was extremely soft - almost untraceable. Tommy Stack repeated his feat of 2005 when saddling the first winner of the season and the following day he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his exploits over the years.
Stack, who had a winner at Woodbine in 2004, had a glittering career as a jump jockey in England where among his memorable victories was one on Red Rum in the Aintree Grand National. Since returning to his native land he has trained many top class winners capturing classics in both Ireland and England. He is currently preparing El Fuego for a tilt at the English 1,000 Guineas in Newmarket in May.
The first graded race of the season also took place at the Curragh and Aidan O’Brien saddled Chenchikova , a half sister to High Chaparral. She won her only race as a juvenile and was then made favourite for the English Oaks at Epsom in June.
However, she was not knocked about in these testing conditions and was probably in need of the race. She was in contention until entering the final furlong but victory went to the more experienced Danehill Music. She is trained by David Wachman who enjoyed success in America last season with Luas Line.
Dermot Weld saddled Bawaader to win the Irish Lincolnshire Handicap in great style. This looked an open contest but this light weight relished the underfoot conditions and simply ran away from his rivals in the final two furlongs for a seven lengths verdict despite drifting towards the far rails in the final furlong.
The Cheltenham festival is the biggest jumps meeting in England and in 2005 the Irish raiders recorded nine victories over the four days. This was a record but to further emphasize the strength of
European Update
racing in Ireland they returned last month and won ten of the twentyfour races down for decision.
War Of Attrition (Gold Cup), Brave Inca (Champion Hurdle) and Newmill (Champion Chase) gave Ireland victory in three of the four grade one races while Golden Cross just failed to complete a clean sweep when going under by a short head to My Way De Solzen in the World Hurdle.
There wasn’t an English trained runner in the first four
fellow Irish challengers Hedgehunter and Forget The Past which was just ahead of the French trained L’Ami.
In the Champion Hurdle the Irish occupied the first four placings, a feat repeated in the Cross Country race and the Foxhunters race while Newmill was followed home by Fota Island in the Champion Chase in which third placed Mr McGoldrick was the only English trained horse to finish the course.
The Irish team won over 2 million pound which is the equivalent of $2.8 million Canadian Dollars and as the raiding party was without 2005 Gold Cup winner Kicking King and he will be back next year the future looks very bright for Irish national hunt racing.
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905-584-4969 Fax: 905-584-5045 email: ansonstudfarm@netscape.net Inquiries to Sonja or Andy McKinnon
17655 Innis Lake Road, Caledon East, ON