Named after the great Italian
artist, Benozzo Gozzoli came 2nd at Folkestone over 2m 5f in a
handicap hurdle. In 12 previous
attempts over jumps the best he has finished was 4th of 5 over
hurdles. In his last two completed runs
over jumps he was beaten 68 lengths and 65 lengths.
This was his first run
for us after seven months off and he ran a stormer to finish 2nd in a
very tough race. We didn’t know what
trip he wanted or what ground he liked.
Even his jockey Andrew Thornton, who had ridden him before in races,
didn’t know and if you were a form expert and looked through all his races you
wouldn’t know! We decided to run him
over 2 ½ miles and the ground was so testing that half the field had had enough
with over a mile to go. Ben was going
as well as the winner at the last hurdle down the back and they were the only
ones in it. For me, it was the bravest
performance by a horse from our yard this season. I wish now that I had run him over 2 miles as he really emptied
out in the home straight and Andrew did a wonderful job nursing him home to
keep 2nd without beating him up.
We will respect the fact that Ben gave everything and give him time to
recover and we will try and find a race over 2m on better ground. He is such a genuine horse and a gentleman
in every way. I would love it if we
could improve him more and get his owner, John Powell, in the winners’
enclosure again!
No comments:
Post a Comment