What a fabulous syndicate horse Ben Buie is – since his current group of owners took over his ownership 12 months ago he’s literally gone from zero to hero! His form figures beforehand read UPP9 10 and since they took over he has been rejuvenated and his form figures from last November read 1 1 3 5 6 3 7 3 3 2 1 – what have they done to him?! Seriously though, what a fun syndicate they all are and what a star he has been for them.
At Hereford on Monday he was returning from his summer holiday which was much deserved following a busy early summer which ended in a 3rd and 2nd place just two days apart. Although pleased with his well being at home we never completely trust Ben Buie as he has been known to have his own ideas, however, with Sean Bowen claimed for his new ride Noble Yeats in Ireland (they won), Sam Twiston-Davies, who also gets on well with Ben, was the chosen jockey and what a ride he gave him. Sam’s decision to kick on approaching 2 out, and flying the 2nd last, was surely a race winning decision and Ben stuck to the task for him to win by 4 1/2 lengths and delight his enthusiastic group of owners. What a super result and our 14th winner of the season.
The other two runners were disappointing – Kalibrate is the biggest head-scratcher I’ve ever had. He’s a stunning looking horse that we’ve had since a foal and he has pleased us at every stage and works as well as anything on the gallops. He was even more disappointing on his hurdling debut than his lack lustre bumper runs – maybe he’s not a racehorse, maybe he just needs time. Lots of discussions in progress… Samtara was jumping for fun but stopped quickly and we will take him to Ben Brain’s to look at his wind.
Three runners at Chepstow today. Rolling Clouds and Wide To West are both horses making their debuts for us but both have point to point form in Ireland and are both horses we like a lot. They are large prices and I hope they outrun those figures – we will certainly know more about them after today.
Unbeaten Genovese runs in the bumper with a 7lb penalty for his Worcester win but as only a 4 year old it is a massive ask to give 7lbs to some very highly thought of, expensive purchases. He still needs to fill his frame but obviously thrilled us winning on debut and I look forward to watching how he copes with this much tougher of tasks.