Two runners at Catterick today so an early start for Paddy and Polly who have headed north with Duke of Luckley and Forecast. Duke of Luckley makes his chasing debut in a Novices’ Handicap Chase over 2 miles and has the assistance of Sean Bowen in the saddle who has schooled him at home. He’s had a good break since his last run and we are all looking forward to seeing how he copes with the larger obstacles.
Forecast runs for our Racing Club and has James Best on board. He ran really well for a long way at Cheltenham but probably did need that run more than I’d realised and he should strip fitter today. The ground should suit him and we hope he will put in another bold show for our enthusiastic Racing Club.
Lots of members of the Club were here on Saturday to watch Forecast put through his paces before today and to enjoy their Annual Christmas get together, albeit slightly earlier than normal, with mulled wine, cakes, a quick quiz organised by Paul Davis and, as usual, lots of laughter! I ran through the plans for the horses in the Club and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. There are spaces available in our Racing Club so do get in touch if you fancy being involved or, alternatively, how about buying someone Membership for Christmas? £500 for the year or pay £42 monthly by direct debit.
Yesterday Ben Buie finished 3rd over fences at Leicester which wasn’t his best result to date but it was a solid run under Sam Twiston-Davies and maintained his record of ‘adding to the pot’ for the 12th consecutive time, which is all of his races for his syndicate and comprises three wins and being in the first three for the other 9 runs. He isn’t the most straight forward of horses but is a model of consistency and is adored by his owners especially as we never quite know which Ben Buie is going to turn up! As syndicate manager Paul Davis said yesterday “Ben has maintained his reputation as the ‘Carlsberg’ syndicate horse”!
Good luck to the Catterick Team today.