1st visit to Towcester

I made the journey to Towcester for the first time yesterday as I continue my quest to visit all 60 racecourses in the UK with Towcester being the 57th I've visited and after a rather drawn out bus ride from Milton Keynes railway station that took the best part of a hour through I finally reached my final destination and was very impressed with the outstanding viewing offered from the too excellent new grandstands at this Buckingshire venue and after a wander around the betting rind and parade ring I must say I was very impressed with what I saw.

The racing itself wasn't of the highest quality but this is Towcester not Cheltenham but despite the relatively low grade racing on offer the racing was still very competitive with several exciting finishes especially in the opening race with the TimVaughan trained My Oh Mount Brown just holding off the top weight and 25-1 shot backed by yours truly Val D'Allier in a titanic tussle up the Towcester hill.

The best performance of the day was undoubtedly the Emma Leville trained 6yo Clarok Cloak a 140 rated hurdler making his chasing debut in the 2m novice chase and regardless of the weak opposition there was plenty to like as he negotiated this very tricky track for a novice with a effortless 15 length victory. He may well be up to mixing it at a much higher level as the new season progresses tho the trainer did say he would not appreciate very soft ground so will bear this in mind.

Sizing Europe back with a bang

Good evening.

October is here which means the new NH season is upon us and the evergreen Sizing Europe gave a taster of things to come over the winter months with a excellent winning seasonal debut from a very useful field at Gowan Park yesterday and despite his advancing age there is no doubt there will be more big prize's in store for him in the coming months and it would be fascinating to see if he finally gets the chance to run over 3m on decent ground and this would be most likely to occur at Kempton on Boxing Day for the King George Chase and granted his optimum conditions he could be a formidable contender where several 11 year olds have been successful most notable the legendary Kauto Star two years ago in this mid season showpiece and who knows a bold show at Kempton could even lead to a Cheltenham Gold Cup bid as its very hard to seeing and any other horse for that matter challenging the sensational Sprinter Sacre in the Champion Chase at the Festival providing Nicky Henderson's unbeaten chaser stays sound thou personally despite him being twelve come March the Ryanair could present the perfect oppurtunity to land a third success at The Festival.