Ben’s on the Case
A plan is in place for the Ben Case-trained Tempest River, though whether it is a cunning one remains to be seen.
Defeat for an odds-on favourite is not normally greeted with a feeling of satisfaction. Yet Edgcote trainer Case was far from inconsolable after his Aintree Listed bumper winner had gone down by four lengths to the Lucy Wadham-trained Baby Shine in heavy ground at Leicester on Tuesday.
The market may have spoken one thing, but Case applied his own logic to the reverse in the 2m mares’ novices’ hurdle.
He said: “Daryl Jacob got off the horse and said she had run a better race than at Hereford last time when she won. Although it is nine weeks away, we might as well run next in the mares’ final at Newbury on March 24. We will get better ground and then we could always go to Cheltenham in April.”
Case can expect to re-oppose Baby Shine in the Newbury contest and added: “We ran against her three times last season and the only time we beat her was at Liverpool on better ground. I don’t think our horse particularly wants it heavy and the winner probably coped with it more today.”
Whatever the outcome when final battle plans are drawn up for Newbury, there is a heartening feeling about looking forward to the spring on a damp, grey afternoon when the mud is flying and ‘a sensible gallop’ is prevailing. Case’s air of relative serenity was probably helped by the fact he has an admirably consistent mare whose eight career runs have brought two wins, a second, three thirds and a brace of fourth places.
On balance, you’d probably take that.
His horses are also in rude health as wins for Ginger Fizz and Mark The Book in the last week testify.
The 11-year-old Mark The Book, owned by Case’s principal patron David Allen, slogged to a three mile success in the mud at Chepstow on Friday. That was just 48 hours after Ginger Fizz had scored in an 11 runner bumper at Southwell under Dominic Elsworth.
Case said: “Mark The Book has been to Chepstow five times in his life, winning three of them and finishing second in the other two so he obviously likes the place. However, it is a bit annoying there isn’t anything back there for him next month!
“He doesn’t have the best of legs and half of the battle is keeping him sound. He had been off for a long while before he ran at Haydock where he went well for a long time before getting tired.
“The handicapper dropped him 8lbs after that but even after going up 7lbs for his win he is still only rated 120 which means he won’t get in the bigger handicaps.
“We will probably run him at Wetherby next month as that is another galloping track which will allow him to get into a jumping rhythm.”
Ginger Fizz, a five year-old mare by Haafd, scored a two and a half length success from Bit Of A Madam at Southwell in her bumper.
Although this was her first victory, she had previously been a model of consistency, twice finishing fourth in sizeable fields while second at Fontwell.
The trainer is contemplating running her on the flat as an option.
Thoresby was third of 13 for Case in a 3m handicap hurdle at Ludlow last Thursday and may go chasing, while Dance Island will hopefully be sparked back into life today at Warwick by a return to timber.
Saturday should bring entries at Doncaster in the form of Brass Tax in the 3m Grade 2 Novices’ Hurdle and Ussee in the mares’ bumper.
Also enjoying a rare share of the limelight at Southwell last Wednesday was Towcester Racecourse regular Eric Palmer. Palmer, who has had a long standing affinity with his home Willoughby cricket club, led in the Graeme McPherson-trained Tickatack for the Martins Hill Partnership after the horse’s 12/1 victory in the 2m 4 1/2f handicap hurdle.
It was heartening to see county trainer John Upson back in familiar and local territory at Towcester on Sunday, as not everyone enjoyed my privilege of catching up with him at the Cobblers versus Southend fixture a weekend earlier.
Upson’s mix of racing and football nostalgia is intriguing, not least due to a working class Essex background, which first enabled him to see The Shrimpers in 1956 at Roots Hall as an 11-year-old, in the company of his father.
Southend had only returned to their original home five months earlier when Upson witnessed the fourth round 1-0 FA Cup defeat by a Manchester City side including Bert Trautmann, the goalkeeper who broke his neck in the 3-1 final victory over Birmingham City at Wembley that season.
Upson said: “I went with my father and it was a day of torrential rain which left us sliding on muddy banks. A trench was dug across the pitch and sand was added. Southend were in Division Three (South) and because of the crowds we were late getting in, and the match had started. We left thinking Southend had drawn 0-0 and it wasn’t until we got home we realised they had conceded an early goal and been beaten 1-0.”
Back on the race track at Towcester, the gallant run of Upson’s Gritti Palace, second of four in the novices’ chase behind Universal Soldier, was heart-warming, not least for the local Nap Hand Partnership syndicate, in whose colours he runs.
With retirement beckoning, the 12 year-old was on a ‘last chance saloon’ run and it was only due to many hours of devotion from groom Tracy Leeson that he returned.
While Upson would clearly love another high profile ‘Saturday’ winner, he can at least reflect on a career which brought such good horses as Nick The Brief, who won two Vincent O’Brien Irish Hennessy Gold Cups, Over The Road, who took the 4m chase at the Cheltenham Festival, and Very Very Ordinary (Bollinger Champagne Novices’ Chase).
There was also Zeta’s Lad and Thar-An-Bharr who both rattled off five timers in their careers, the former winning a Racing Post Trophy and the latter finishing second in a Mackeson in 1990 to Multum in Parvo.
And unlike Manchester City’s goal at Southend, Upson saw every one of them...
Racing’s ‘C’ word was entering the thoughts of Staffordshire handler Charlotte Jones after the 11/1 success of Lorikarad in the concluding 2m 6f hunters’ chase at Towcester on Sunday.
Jones now has just one horse under her care, but the Kinver trainer may attach more credit to the encouraging words of her partner Liam Payter, the jockey who steered the eight year-old to a half length success from Mister Teddy and who works for Henry Daly, Payter having once been based in the county with John Upson.
“Liam has been telling me how good the horse was and I will have to start believing him and perhaps think about Cheltenham,” said Jones whose fellow owner Ron Tolley was also present for her first win under Rules.
“That’s 12 starts and five wins for the horse,” said Jones. “We used to train around seven or eight point to pointers, but now have just him.”
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