From the way they've been doing things at home, you'd never guess that, racing on consecutive days off almost exactly the same rating, Kadouchski would go very close at a Grade One track while Dr Darcey would make no show at probably a Grade Three track. But, as Dean and his friends would say, that's why they call it horseracing. Kadouchski, as you'll probably have deduced from that opening, ran a terrific race at Sandown today. That, allied to another very clement afternoon, made for a lovely outing. The balminess probably, though, wasn't
ideal: Kadou's two course and distance wins (including in this race last year) had come on heavy tracks, which really bring his stamina into play, while today's race, with the ground close to good, wasn't able to play quite so much to his strengths. How he'd have fared if the weather had been wet earlier in the week is pure conjecture, but that's by the by: we can't complain as he ran a terrific and terrificly genuine race (again) to finish a good third.
He was aided in this by a very sound ride from Joe Akehurst, who did exactly as asked and gave the horse the perfect trip, designed to do as much as we could do offset the disadvantage of the conditions not being as taxing as we'd ideally have chosen. And it was impossible to mind not winning when the race produced the first winner which Nick Gifford has trained since the passing of his legendary, universally-respected and massively popular father. Nick had come extremely close to the winner's enclosure in a valuable steeplechase at Ascot on Saturday and I'd enjoyed shouting at the TV as Tullamore Dew and the badly-underused Liam Treadwell came with a run there, so I certainly wasn't unhappy to see his charge salute the judge today.
From the way they've been doing things at home, you'd never guess that, racing on consecutive days off almost exactly the same rating, Kadouchski would go very close at a Grade One track while Dr Darcey would make no show at probably a Grade Three track. But, as Dean and his friends would say, that's why they call it horseracing. Kadouchski, as you'll probably have deduced from that opening, ran a terrific race at Sandown today. That, allied to another very clement afternoon, made for a lovely outing. The balminess probably, though, wasn't
ideal: Kadou's two course and distance wins (including in this race last year) had come on heavy tracks, which really bring his stamina into play, while today's race, with the ground close to good, wasn't able to play quite so much to his strengths. How he'd have fared if the weather had been wet earlier in the week is pure conjecture, but that's by the by: we can't complain as he ran a terrific and terrificly genuine race (again) to finish a good third.
He was aided in this by a very sound ride from Joe Akehurst, who did exactly as asked and gave the horse the perfect trip, designed to do as much as we could do offset the disadvantage of the conditions not being as taxing as we'd ideally have chosen. And it was impossible to mind not winning when the race produced the first winner which Nick Gifford has trained since the passing of his legendary, universally-respected and massively popular father. Nick had come extremely close to the winner's enclosure in a valuable steeplechase at Ascot on Saturday and I'd enjoyed shouting at the TV as Tullamore Dew and the badly-underused Liam Treadwell came with a run there, so I certainly wasn't unhappy to see his charge salute the judge today.
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