On my six and half hour car journey from home to Perth racecourse last Saturday, I had every opportunity to run through the form of my seven rides at the Scottish track, as I wasn’t driving myself, and I must say I thought I had some relatively nice rides to look forward to; but I’ve thought that before and come away with no winners at all.
You don’t mind doing the miles if you ride a winner, so you can just imagine how delighted I was that no less than five of my seven mounts won. I’ve had a few four-timers in my career before, but never a five-timer and I must thank Gordon Elliott for putting me up on his winners and Dave Roberts for all his hard work throughout the year.
You need a lot of luck to ride five winners in a day, and the right sort of horse and Gordon Elliott certainly knows what sort of horse you need at Perth.
It’s a flat track that suits handy types and on the whole, you need a horse that travels through his race easily, Gordon knows this and the horses he brings over are always worth a second look. It’s a good day out and his owners enjoy the occasion too – especially if their horse runs well or even wins.
I rode Gordon Elliott’s first ever winner, Arresting, at Perth back in 2006 and the place has been lucky for both of us.
Chepstow Jump Season Opener on Saturday & Sunday 13th/14th October is a meeting that a lot of trainers are looking at as the first target for many of their better horses and I know Phillip Hobbs has quite a few earmarked for that weekend that I will be riding.
It’s an exciting time for us at the moment, although there’s not too much to pass on to readers of my column as these horses are just entering early work, but they’ll be plenty of news over the next month or so.
If you’re looking out for my rides at Cartmel on Saturday I can tell you not to bother – I won’t be riding at all as my sister-in-law Eimear Chance is marrying Mark Grant in Ireland and I’m looking forward to the day.
But it looks like it’s Cartmel on Bank Holiday Monday (I see Chepstow have a family fun day with a flat racing card on this day) and then Stratford on the Tuesday – need to keep the winners flowing if I’m going to retain my jockey’s Championship!
