A Royal Winner on Ladies Day

‘Flaming June’ has different connotations. This was especially apparent during the recent Edwards Motors Ladies Day at Worcester Racecourse which dawned to the sound of roaring thunder with flash floods. Thankfully this gave way to glorious sunshine for an afternoon attended by 8,654 racegoers.

Ladies Day usually coincides with the Derby meeting at Epsom, a day always enjoyed by the Queen.  This year, Her Majesty’s only runner of the day, Special Agent, was not at Epsom but was declared for the MPinches Transport sponsored bumper at Worcester, just 25 minutes ahead of the Derby.

Jockey David Bass confirmed the Queen would be watching a recording of the Worcester race in the Royal Box. The gelding had been a non-runner at our previous meeting due to the softened ground but this time conditions suited and he stayed on well to beat Bobble Emerald. The future beholds well for Special Agent, trained by Nicky Henderson, who won the same bumper with smart hurdler, Mossley four years ago.

 

 

Local Cropthorne trainer, Tony Carroll had a great afternoon with an across the card double at Epsom and Worcester within 15 minutes. Great Link won the John Burke Memorial chase on the Ladies Day card.

Burke was former stable jockey to Kinnersley trainer, Fred Rimell and in 1976 became the fifth jockey in history to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same year on Royal Frolic and Rag Trade.

Best Mate’s owner, Jim Lewis who turned 80 this week, made the annual trip to Worcester to support St Richard’s Hospice and the memorial handicap chase in honour of his wife, Valerie.

This year the race was won by The Romford Pele who came third in a novice chase at the Punchestown Festival in May and is now bound for the Galway Plate.

The Worcester evening meeting last week will go down in history as the night that 19 times champion jockey, Tony McCoy beat his own record which had stood for 10 years, when he rode the fastest ever 50^th winner in one season. Coincidentally, the horse on which he achieved this milestone was Bob Keown who, like the Romford Pele is trained by Rebecca Curtis and runs in the same colours.

Claines trainer, Richard Newland gets the right tune out of just about every horse he trains these days. Neverownup won his fourth race in 3 weeks at Newton Abbott, the first of which was at Worcester.  Slim Pickens followed up his recent Southwell win just 7 days later at Worcester and Master of Deception added to Newland’s success at Aintree last weekend.

The Racecourse stand at the Malvern Three Counties Show was buzzing for three days over the weekend. For the first time, we took an equiciser training horse which attracted the attention of a multitude of budding jockeys, all keen to experience riding ‘jockey style’.

The same equiciser will be part of the numerous free attractions on offer at the Family Fun raceday at Pitchcroft this Sunday when the gates open at 12.20pm.