It was nice to get off the mark in May as MARCANO finally found his way back into the winners enclosure at Bath on Friday. The son of Arcano had shown a lot of promise as a two-year-old, finishing third behind Adaay and Kodi Bear on his debut at Newbury before going on to win at Salisbury next time out. Unfortunately he jarred himself up when running in the Sales race at York next time out and hasn’t been the same since. However, he has dropped nearly 20lb in the handicap and has found his level of late, finishing fourth at Bath and Salisbury on his most recent starts. Then with the new hood and tounge tie combination, he found his way into the winners enclosure on Friday and what was most pleasing was the attitude he showed to battle back past the runner-up. Hopefully this win will have boosted his confidence as he remains well handicapped off a five pound higher mark in the future.
While May has only seen one winner, we have had loads of places and probably the most frustrating was CHAMPAGNE CHAMP at Kempton on Wednesday evening. A huge horse who is still pretty green, he was unsuited by the steady pace and stayed on too late to be denied a neck. He does need ease in the ground, so it was a positive to see him effective of an AW surface as it does give us more options and he should continue to progress as the season goes on.
It was another second for ICEBUSTER at Salisbury on Saturday evening, running a cracking race to finish behind the well handicapped Starchitect. He seems very versatile as regards to trip, with his four seconds this year coming from ten furlongs to sixteen but it is just very hard for him to get his head in front and a two pound rise won’t make it easy in the future.
It was frustrating to see such a steady pace when MASTER CARPENTER faced his easiest task for a while in a Listed Contest at Goodwood. He just got outpaced at a vital stage but he still ran with credit to finish fourth. On the same card it was a really promising debut from the Hellvelyn filly HELLOFAHASTE who finished fourth in a really competitive maiden in which the winner heads to Royal Ascot. While MIDNIGHT RIDER was the third fourth on the day when running well in the amateur race at York and he looks set to win again soon.