Pyle based owner David Brace had a superb weekend when his horse Paint The Dream ran away with Newbury’s Saturday feature, the £50,000 Greatwood Gold Cup, with his grandson Connor riding.
The eight year old, trained by Fergal O’Brien, took over at halfway and increased his lead in the home straight with little effort, jumping well. He finished 15 lengths clear of his rivals, running off 147, the mark he won off at Chepstow’s Unibet Jump Season Opener in October.
Paint The Dream has now won £91,000 in prize money and looking at Saturday’s performance there will be plenty more coming in the future. He’s come a long way since falling while in the lead two fences from home in a point to point in April 2018.
The going was officially soft at Newbury and David said afterwards that Paint The Dream would prefer quicker ground. Aintree may be his next stop. Connor rode another winner on Sunday for O’Brien, bringing Crambo from last to first to take the Huntingdon bumper.
At Musselburgh last Tuesday Adam Wedge was a nose away from riding his second treble in a fortnight for Laura Morgan. The Leicestershire handler is having her best season, so much so that Wedge’s record for her in the current campaign is 18-99 compared with 27-241 for Evan Williams.
Evan’s daughter Isabel used her five pound allowance to good advantage at Newbury to win a Veterans’ Hurdle narrowly on Bold Plan – veterans in this case being eight years old or more. The verdict was three quarters of a length, so her claim made the difference between winning and losing. There were high hopes for Bold Plan when he won a £50,000 hurdle a few years ago, and later he beat the then-well regarded The Big Breakaway in a novice chase. Something went amiss during his next race and as a result of that he lost his form and plummeted 20 pounds down the weights. Now he’s turned a corner, scoring twice in a row.
The David Evans-trained Jacks Profit broke his duck at Lingfield on Saturday, with a change of tactics – being held up – helping his cause. This and his previous best effort were over a mile and a quarter, and the way he finished suggests he might even get further.
David Probert rode the last two winners at Southwell on Saturday evening, both odds on favourites. With ten in the last fortnight, he is still in top form. That left him on the 42-winner mark for this calendar year, leading the way from Hollie Doyle and Daniel Muscutt.
Our next fixture is Wednesday 23rd March and we are also taking bookings for our Family Day on Easter Sunday. Adult tickets are £17 in advance with under-18s going free of charge.
