Midweek this meeting was very doubtful to get the go ahead
from the racecourse inspectors, but dry weather just about got this popular
meeting to go ahead, the going classed as soft/heavy made it a choice weather
to run to horses or not,a lot of owners/trainers electing to leave their
runners in the box or take them home.
This left the races to have very small fields as the horses
hacked their way around the Hertfordshire track.
Five runners for the first race the East Anglian Area Club
member’s conditions race saw a class field headed by Andrew Pennocks Counting
stars a horse that stable jockey Dicky Collinson who was stood down for medical
reasons for the week mentioned in previous blogs that he was one of the best horses in the
Pennocks string.
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| Star of Massini, |
But it was another well marked horse off a point to point
rating of 93 who came off the near bottomless ground on the home straight, Star
of Massini, trained in Essex by Mr N Padfield and ridden by top novice rider
Jack Andrews to take the race by a length from the Pennock horse.
‘That was winner number eleven for me this season so
hopefully I can get a few more now,’ mentioned the jockey who was rushing off on an
hour and a half car journey to Mollington for a ride in the last.
'The small field, pace and the ground has played into my
hands, if we had gone any faster out there none of us would have made it to the
finish line.’
Sam Davies Thomas deputizing for the stood down Collinson
mentioned,’ the going beat us, it’s not very good out there really, so I looked
after him more than raced.’
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| Star of Massini, followed home by Counting Stars
The next race though the intermediate was a little luckier
for the young jockey and the experienced Andrew Pennocks horses.
The Admiral Benbow who was part of a Dicky Collinson treble
at Fakenham a few weeks back, which included Counting Stars, saw off well three
other competitors in a very slow run race. The jockey mentioned that the
trainer was going to don his race ride boots himself to get on this one, but a
deal was struck if Davies-Thomas came to ride the rest of the Pennock
horse’s that he could take on this one. This taking the young jockey onto
twenty winners for the season, seventeen winners being his season best so far.
Sam Davies-Thomas, Andrew Pennock
‘we have had a bit of a talk in the changing room and have
all decided to go steady early on in order to make a race of it from the second
last, but it’s nice to get spare ride in the caliber of this one.’
The Admiral Benbow
The novice riders race went to true amateur racing people,
Stuart Wright riding for his father Richard rode a nice race on The Duke of Kentford to get home in
front of Sean Roach on Dallas Cloud.
‘I’m so delighted with that win.’ Mentioned the young jockey
of the fourteen year old veteran,whose day time work is within
the hustle and bustle of city life.
‘It was hard work though, he was keen with
me early on so I let him in front and could hear the rest on the back straight
final time round pushing their horses, so I had to keep my fella going to the
line.’
The Jockey on only his second winner of a five year career
riding in points mentioned he used to ride this horse out at Stuart Morris’s,
while at University in Leicester. The horse on retirement was given to the
Wright’s by the Stuart family on the agreement that he would have fun out and
about for the rest of his days.
Richard Wright a third generation farmer mentioned,’ he is
such a great schoolmaster, who is enjoying his time at the moment, we are so
lucky to have him.’
Richard and Stuart Wright
Again a small field of four for the ladies open,and saw
jockey Tabitha Worsely fresh from her win the weekend before at Parham take
another race by five lengths on a horse never previously ridden before, Major
Decision.
A veteran at fourteen the gelding by Saddlers’ Hall,
trained and owned by Miss J. Wickens seemed to take the pair well up the finish
line, the going getting no better, if not worse as racing continued.
‘I have never been so slow coming up to the first fence
before in a race, but he pulled himself to the front and kept plugging on through
the mud,’ mentioned the jockey.’ It’s been an indifferent weekend for me a few
placings one going through a wing, but a winner here tops it off nicely.’ Who’d
be a jump jockey??
The owner mentioned she bought the fourteen-year-old off the
internet a couple of years back, and has enjoyed her time with him,
‘it’s great
to get a winner, it’s been a long winter, so it’s nice to get a win.
And it was nice to get Tabitha to finally ride him, she is very much in demand.’
Tabitha, a second year student at Birmingham University has
now though got to concentrate on her final few exams, but is a young jockey in
high demand.
Major Decision, Tabitha Worsley over the last
Another young jockey in demand this season is Sam
Davies-Thomas. On a winner already in the afternoon, he claimed the ride on
another winner on the Andrew Pennock horse Mister serious, in the three horse restricted race.
On his twenty first winner of the season, Sam mentioned that
the seven-year-old pulled very hard all the way round. ‘This fella has a high cruising
speed, he needs a big field on good ground so he can be made to go at a high speed,
it’s was very difficult out there.’
Sam Davies Thomas on a hat-trick of wins for the afternoon
Sam’s previous best season was seventeen winners, the afternoon topped off a good weekend for the Banbury based jockey when
Allforthelove came home to beat four others in the last race of the afternoon, the open maiden.
Trained by
James Owen the ride usually taken by Tim Domworth who was elsewhere on the
Bank Holiday was a lucky spare ride for the jockey on treble for the afternoon.
Sam Davies Thomas on Mister Serious
A mixed meeting at the Hertfordshire course, a good attendance
though for those who came out from the suburbs of London to Coleshill Northaw.
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