You have to be careful what you
wish for. One week we are subjected to a
deluge of rain on the raceday, resulting in just shy of an inch of water
soaking into the track. The following
week’s meeting is an uncomfortable scorcher, the hottest day of the year so
far.
Our first Gent’s race evening
proved a popular event, with plenty of local support and people flocking to the
track for the start of the Bank Holiday weekend.
There were beaming smiles from
amateur jockey, Sam Jukes who rode his first winner under rules in the opening Hargreave
Hale Investment Managers hunter’s chase.
Winning pointer with the Ledbury
Hunt, ten year-old Rye Cross put in a much improved performance on his recent
Cheltenham run to see off the challenges of the favourite, Master Sunrise,
trained by Diana Ralph in Malvern.
The Ralph family had plenty to
celebrate later in the evening, however.
Diana’s son Alastair, who trains at Billingsley near Bridgenorth in Shropshire,
posted a double on the card.
Former amateur jockey on the
point to point circuit, Ralph began his racing career working for Michael
Scudamore. He went on to join Paul
Nicholls’ yard at Ditcheat before furthering his experience with a stint for Dr
Richard Newland in Claines.
Whilst maintaining his yard of
successful pointers, Ralph advanced his career as Henry Daly’s assistant
trainer for 5 seasons. In 2015 he took
out his own training licence and the yard is currently going from strength to
strength. Of his 9 Worcester runners to
date, 4 have been winners.
Employing the services of Richard
Johnson, who rode a treble on the card, Ralph’s first victory of the evening
was with 11/4 favourite Gustave Mahler in the national hunt novice hurdle, a
qualifying race for the 7bets4free Fixed Brush Hurdle Series final at Worcester
in October. Gustave Mahler is a course and
distance winner, having scored in the bumper exactly a year ago on Ladies Day.
It’s Oscar was Ralph’s second
success of the night in the 2 mile 7 furlong handicap hurdle, having last run
at Pitchcroft in July 2013, coming home in 4th place under Jason
Maguire.
It was particularly pleasing to
see It’s Oscar’s owner, Sue Troughton in the Worcester winner’s enclosure as
she is a great supporter of the course and rarely misses a meeting.
Martin Keighley had not had a
winner at Worcester for 705 days and 34 runners, so it was thrilling to see his
13 times maiden runner, Viking Mistress eased on the run-in under Richard
Johnson to record an 11 length success for the many happy members of the Martin
Keighley Racing Club who had come along to support her.
Keighley trains at the famous
Condicote Stables near Cheltenham, former home to jump racing legend David ‘The
Duke’ Nicholson.
Tomorrow’s meeting at Worcester
is the annual Ladies Day fixture and a large crowd is expected. The first race is due off at 1.45pm with
gates opening at 11.30am.
