What a wonderful week of racing. Witness Protection ran a blinder for us on Wednesday and with all the videos we are now allowed to do on the racecourse, and with a live zoom call to his owners in Foxtrot Racing before racing down by the last hurdle, we hopefully made it feel as if they were with us as much as we could.
James Best gave him a superb ride and had him handy all the way and still looked to have every chance 3 out. As soon as he was beaten he looked after him and he returned without a scratch on him and was bright and well eating up that night and the next morning. We think his stamina was stretched beyond it’s limits and it is a shame we didn’t know we would have got into today’s County Hurdle when we had to declare for the Coral Cup as a stiff 2 miles is probably his trip. Never mind, we are still learning about him and have an exciting horse for the future who’ll surely give us all plenty more fun.
We do have two runners today but not at Cheltenham. City Never Sleeps runs at 2.20pm at Fakenham partnered by James Best for our Racing Club. Vicki, who rides him out every day, has gone with him and her and Paddy left the yard at 8am for their 4 hour journey. He’s a lovely horse who we’ve had lots of fun with and, although the tight track may not be ideal, he’ll hopefully run another big race and give the Club something to shout on.
We then have Jon Hughes and Torben Dal’s Sarasota Star in the Fakenham Silver Cup Handicap Hurdle and he’s had a decent break after disappointing at Cheltenham last time. He’s won twice before that this season and has been working well at home and seems in very good form with himself (Belinda’s arms have welcomed the rest today!). He’s not particularly fancied in the betting but I think he will run a big race.