Crawley & Horsham
Parham
Saturday 26th March 2011
by Simon McInnes
A first visit to the course since it switched
from being right-handed to left handed. The effect on the racing is
that the horses have a short, sharp ascent to the winning post,
which is preferable to an awkward, turning, short, sharp drop -
except maybe for those riding non-stayers. Also reversed was the
facilities lay out, where the all the trade stands, entertainments,
paddock etc are now on the outside, and the car parking on the
inner. This makes exiting after racing far more difficult than it
used to be - unnecessarily so? And on a day where the crowd was
excellent, it all felt a bit cramped around the
paddock/bookies/refreshments.
The meeting got off to a disappointing start
with the second and third races cutting up to three runners each,
but numbers picked up in the second half, and the throbbing mass
that attended as a sign of indifference to Wales vs England
football did not seem discouraged by the early stutter.
Going: Good / Good to Firm
Race 1: Thakeham-Lovelock Members
1: Keltic Moon 2: Jazz Attack 3: Haile Deadly
Winner owned, trained & ridden: Ray Glennon
Despite an unexceptional early pace, this unfolded as if the
leading pair had gone off too fast. The betting had Jazz Attack
odds-on and Haile Deadly second best, and they quickly put some
daylight between themselves and the other pair. However Keltic
Moon, who has won under rules, ambled along confidently and closed
up under minimal pressure around the fourth last. The first to
crack was Haile Deadly, and Keltic Moon came to the second last
with the disappointing Jazz Attack enduring a far more frenetic
effort from his rider. After that the winner eased ahead, with his
jockey showing notable composure considering it was his first ever
winner that was looming
Race 2: Tim Dunlop Memorial Restricted
1: Winnie Wood 2: Onlyfiftyquideach
Winner owned & trained: Heather Cobb, ridden: Philip York
It is always disappointing when an area with a disproportionately
high array of hard to place troublemakers can only summon up three
to run in the restricted, but there was the makings of close finish
emerging when Westcoat Lad fell at the fourth last. He was giving
Winnie Wood a little bit of aggro at the time, but the caveat would
be that he seems to struggle to see out three miles, hence the mare
being favourite despite often pulling up. Winnie Wood was left well
clear of Onlyfiftyquideach, who was well behind from the start and
took no serious part in the race.
Race 3: Harwoods Mixed Open
1: Peadar 2: Master T 3: Elenas River
Winner owned: Simon Tindall, trained & ridden: Nick Pearce
With only the rarely enthused Master T and strolling veteran Elenas
River up against him, the biggest threat to Peadar's victory was
the recent run of bad luck that the Tindall/Pearce horses had been
suffering, but memory suggested that every wrinkle in the list of
things that could go wrong had been ticked off, and the cosmic
joker is not big on repetition. Master T was actually on one of his
better days here, but after deciding that Elenas River had not been
setting a fast enough pace on the first lap, Peadar went on,
quickened things up and mostly outjumped his main threat, leaving
the race to comfortably finish in the order that the bookmakers
predicted.
Race 4: Latilla-Campbell Open Maiden
1: She Is A Cracker 2: And Your Point Is 3: Kanga Gold
Winner owned & trained: Carolyn Gorman, ridden: George
Gorman
Although eleven went to post, this was a weak maiden, with an awful
lot of letters in the form of the runners, dominated by the letter
P. She Is A Cracker had shown glimpses of ability over hurdles, and
seemed a potentially worthy recruit to pointing, but after twice
showing up well early in her races and then ending up well beaten,
it was beginning to seem as if her stamina was letting her down.
After turning this race into a stroll (and giving her jockey his
first win since graduating from pony racing), it seems that faster
ground may be the key, as the new layout does not leave any margin
for error as far as staying power is concerned. She was as little
fortunate as she was a few lengths behind Mr Maybe when that horse
unseated three out. Mr Maybe was not apparently under any sort of
pressure at the time, but his completion rate in the UK has been
abysmal, so some form of accident was hardly surprising, and this
was his third fall or unseated in his last five races. And Your
Point Is has become a reliable completer of these races, but did
not go at all well in the race and merely struggled on past fading
rivals to be a non-threatening second, leaving Kanga Gold to
outplod the disappointing Uncle Eli for the minor place. Amongst
the others, Aspiring Actor was fading when fell with quite a way to
go, Grumpy Bee unseated two out when well beaten and Mister Robin
came to grief six out, bringing down Over The Page. The attendance
of Gina Andrews to ride Over the Page led to him being fairly
prominent in the betting, but buyer beware! The horse has now, in a
four race career, managed to be carried out, refuse and be brought
down. In medieval times he would be banished from the village for
the cloud of ill-fortune that he brings with him.
Race 5: Rathbones South East Hunts Club
Members
1: Dusshera 2: Thenford Ryde 3: Delgany Gale
Winner owned: JA Gillett, trained & ridden: Phil York
This ended up with win number three for the progressive Dusshera,
who has now handled stepping up in class from maiden to restricted
to this with equal aplomb. She was odds-against in the betting here
as there were a couple of runners that had done more in the past
than she has to date. Control Man had returned from a very long
absence to be second on his debut this season, but his race hit the
buffers early on. Dad Says Heazle blundered at the second, and gave
Control Man a hefty bash. If that was not enough, Dad Says Heazle's
rider spent a hundred yards or so desperately trying to avoid being
unseated as a consequence, and after gravity dragged him off to his
right, the temporary solution was to lay across Control Man's
hindquarters whilst trying to push himself back into the saddle on
his original mount. It failed, and Control Man can be forgiven for
being deeply unimpressed by his involuntary role in the drama.
Delgany Gale also had shown the ability in the past to be factor in
this, but had made a fairly feeble seasonal debut at Tweseldown. At
least he completed this time, but behind the moody Thenford Ryde,
who had led most of the way, but did not find anything to make a
fight of it when Dusshera came alongside. The winner did need to be
ridden along for a while, around fence fourteen - is that a sign
that she has gone as far as she can for now, or just a brief effect
of the faster ground?
Race 6: Michael Burrows Memorial South East
Hunts Club Members, Veteran & Novice riders
1: Lillie Lou 2: Sam Whiskey 3: Boomerang
Winner owned & trained: Raymond Fielder, ridden: Chris
Dennington
The new course layout caused some problems here. The first fence,
which is very close to the start, was omitted because of the angle
of the sun. No theoretical reason for an issue there. However, at
the start Parkbridge Dream unseated and See The View was baulked in
the process. The commentator initially suspected a false start had
been called, but then suggested he had mistaken the chequered flag
man, warning about the fence to be bypassed, for the starter's flag
man. The snail-like pace with which they began hinted that perhaps
one or two riders were not 100% certain either, and it did seem
that See The View might have been able to get going and catch them
quite quickly. Some form of disruption was always on the cards, as
the nine runners had made 20 appearances this season and only
contrived three completions. Two of those were by Boomerang, but
the form of his Tweseldown win had been let down by Uncle Eli in
the maiden earlier, and he looked a bit of a plodder at the end of
the race. The two ahead of him were Lillie Lou, and intermediate
winner last year who had unseated on her only run in 2011 and Sam
Whiskey, a hurdle winner with two runs this term that both ended in
unseating. Sam Whiskey survived both the fences and a certain
degree of harrassment from the loose Space Cowboy (ran out at the
fifth), but Lillie Lou was far too quick for him in the last few
furlongs - perhaps surprisingly given his hurdling background.
Orfeo Conti, the only other one with a finish in 2011, after three
pulled ups, had his second consecutive fourth place, but well
beaten. In complete contradiction to the stats, a couple more
finished this, although badly tailed off