We were
all absolutely thrilled with the impressive win by Headly’s Bridge on Sunday at
Exeter. Headly ran in the 0-130 handicap
chase over 2m 1f carrying top weight of 11st 12 in heavy ground. Exeter is one of the stiffest tracks in the
country plus it being heavy ground it was sure to be a true test for him first
time out. When I used to ride at Exeter
I loved dropping horses in and taking my time around there as the last mile is
up hill to the winning post, so the less you can do for the first half of the
race the better. So we told Paddy
Brennan to do exactly that. Subsequently
Headly arrived between the last two fences still on the bridle and full of energy.
A good jump at the last sealed it and he won by 2 ¼ lengths. Sometimes you beat horses you shouldn’t when
you ride a track like that.
Headly
looked plenty burly enough in the paddock before the race and I would hope that
there would be plenty of improvement to come.
He has come out of his race fine and we hope to step up in grade and
either go to Cheltenham in December or Ascot.
It is of
course very pleasing for Penelope Bridel, his owner, who has been immensely
loyal to the yard and had horses with us for a long time now. She is a very supportive owner who lives
locally to the yard so is able to visit Headly often. She deserves to have such a nice horse.
Thank
you to everyone for all the messages of congratulations. The Racing Post said
‘Headly put up a useful effort under top weight, travelling well under a
confident ride from Paddy Brennan and asserting quite readily when asked. He’s
earned a crack at something a bit better now’.
Headly has been ultra consistent and is a pleasure to train (although
when he first came you couldn’t get near him in the stable and he would pull
hard cantering and hang right and when you got on him he was so uncomfortable
he would nearly get you off) however with his problems fixed now, he has never stopped improving. He was
such a fast & low jumper over hurdles that he used to always take the hair
off his hind legs when he ran so I was very worried when Alice Mills first
schooled him over fences but after a lot of grid work over parallels, the very
first time I saw him jump a fence I knew we were in business.
In his
last 9 runs he has been in the first four and he has now won 3 chases and come
3rd in a Class 2 chase and if the ground had been heavy/soft that
day at Ayr I think he would have won. He
started with an official rating over hurdles of 115 when he arrived and
improved to a rating of 122 and over fences he started with a mark of 120 and
has improved to a current mark of 130 which is only going to be raised next
Tuesday! His strike rate for us over
hurdles is: 17 runs with 1 win and 9 places in the first 4 – 59% in the
money. Over fences his strike rate is 4
runs, 3 wins and one 3rd – 100% in the money. You couldn’t ask for any better. I would be lying if there haven’t been issues
with his training as there always are and he spent some time off the track from
his arriving in late 2010 and his first run in Jan 2012 and I can only thank
Penelope for her patience with her horse, absolutely key in the early days.
It is of
course great to have a winner especially after what has been a difficult year
with losing two wonderful horses. An update to follow shortly on the other horses in the yard.
