A big turnout for action-packed card at Ludlow
It was heartening to see such a good turnout of horses at Ludlow yesterday on what should have been a quiet Monday afternoon after a big weekend of racing, writes Ben Morgan.
Ludlow regularly put good money on offer, but they don’t always get rewarded with runners so the powers that be would have been pleased to see a bumper amount of runners yesterday.
The opening novice hurdle looked a good one on paper and I would suggest a nice horse won it in the shape of Imperial Saint for the Philip Hobbs stable, who have been unbelievably quiet of late.
The former Irish point-to-pointer showed bundles of stamina late on to power away from long-time leader Gentleman Jacques to provide Richard Johnson’s new racing syndicate with a welcome first winner. I’m sure that won’t be the last either.
Ledbury father & son combination, Matt and Stan Sheppard, were on the scoresheet as Little Pi survived a slight blunder to get back up in the shadows of the post.
A good fourth at Exeter last time out in a race that worked out well looked good form and off a low handicap mark he looked sure to go close. If he can tidy up his jumping then he could really progress up the ranks.
It was another father & son combination in the winners’ enclosure in the next as Safe Destination justified late market support to provide the Twiston-Davies family with another winner at Ludlow.
Son Sam dropped his whip at the back of the last but used all of his experience to hold off a late rattle from On The Platform who remained a maiden over fences.
The Irish had a strong representation and Le Boulevardier was one of the more fancied raiders judging on his position in the market in the 2.15.
Philip Enright held a prominent position throughout the race and stayed on best up the straight in what were becoming gruelling conditions. The £4k prize pot will go some way to paying the ferry fees home.
Well-backed favourite Desque De L’Isle couldn’t lay up with a strong pace in the 2.50 set by the returning You Say Nothing, which would have disappointed many punters on course. Second favourite, Feel The Pinch, sat in behind waiting for the pace collapse which duly happened and strode on powerfully after the last to provide Toby Wynne and Robert Llewellyn with a welcome winner.
Only Fools was perhaps an apt winner of the penultimate race of the day for David Pipe & Jack Tudor. She too ran in the same Exeter race that Little Pi ran in last time so the form of that can’t be working out much better. She travelled strongly in what was getting desperate ground at that point before holding off late challenges from Masked Dance and Minniemum.
The last race saw Irish raiders Sam Curling and Philip Enright bring up a double as well-supported favourite Metkayina got on top of long time leader Solid Silver in a gruelling finish to proceedings in the Mares bumper. It was the Irish pair’s first journey to Ludlow but I have a feeling it won’t be their last.
Racing returns to Ludlow next Wednesday the 6th December.
