Following hot on the heels of the Olympics, there was an apt golden sheen to Ginger Pointe’s coat in the evening sunshine at Market Rasen on Saturday as he ran out the easy winner of the 0-100 handicap chase over 2m5 1/2f giving him a perfect record under Rules over fences of one from one!
A new recruit to the yard when bought from the Tattersalls Online Sale in early July, the gelding didn’t come with an obvious chasing pedigree. Or a winning one for that matter, having previously been 0-5 in Irish points and 0-10 over hurdles in the UK.
For such a laid back character in his stable, getting him settled when his legs are moving seems to be the key to this enthusiastic 7 year old and the team at home have concentrated on encouraging this in the weeks since his arrival. He’s also been electric in his schooling, showing a real aptitude for a fence, hence the decision to go straight to chasing.
It all made for an exciting yard debut, and he didn’t disappoint.
Joe Williamson gave him the perfect ride; there was a fairly critical initial discussion about how fast they actually needed to go before Ginger, with the first couple of fences under his belt, sensibly acquiesced to Joe’s point of view.
From then on Joe continued to keep a nicely settled Ginger in touch with the leaders all the way, whilst staying wide to allow him space to see his fences which he jumped brilliantly. Turning in, although the field remained closely bunched, Ginger was travelling sweetly on the bridle when many of their ten rivals were starting to get busy. The pair led before two out and went clear between the final two fences before winging the last and pulling away to win by an easy 4 1/2 lengths.
It was also the second leg of a double on the card for Joe which made it all the more special for him.
A crowd in excess of 12,000 watched Ginger’s victory and whilst the majority were probably there to see James Arthur & Ella Henderson perform after racing, Ginger didn’t know they weren’t all there to watch him – as far as he was concerned they were – and it was like a Cheltenham Festival atmosphere for him!!
Statistic courtesy of Mervyn Buckley (our in-house provider of interesting facts) – this was Danny’s first winner from a debut runner!
It’s also been lovely to welcome back some past owners into the Making A Pointe Partnership, and although the handicapper will rightly have a view on the manner of Ginger’s win, we very much look forward to his next outing.
The bromance between Flavius Titus & Rowan Scott appears to be going from strength to strength when the pair teamed up again in another quick turnaround, this time on the all-weather at Newcastle in a Classified Stakes race over 6f.
Whilst the gelding’s results on the all-weather haven’t been at all bad with five placed efforts from his 13 runs, his last win on the surface actually came at Kempton in November 2017. However given his recent form Flav was probably justified in being sent off favourite in the field of 13 runners, albeit under a penalty for his win at Pontefract 5 days ago.
That said, he had a bad draw and a slow surface that was riding deep due to the heat (definitely not his preferred quick ground) to overcome, so the market’s predicted victory was far from a given.
As ever he set off in the manner to which everyone has become accustomed i.e. slowly.
The pair made headway over 2f out only to run into some congestion around the 1f mark. But, cool as ever, there was no panic from Rowan and he soon had Flav in the clear and running on well inside the final furlong.
They were pressing the leaders over the final 110 yards in a thrilling three-way battle for the line and, with Rowan very strong in the finish, Flav got there to force a dead heat with the long time leader (who at 3 years old was a mere third of Flav’s age!) right on the line.
After the ease of his victory last time out, and the fact that the winner in every other race on the card came from a prominent position, Flav showed immense heart & a will to win. He’s building a lovely partnership with Rowan and everyone, including Flav himself, couldn’t have been more delighted & proud.
Relaxing in the sunshine the following morning