Eclair wins on debut for yard!

Eclair de Beaufeu won on his debut for the yard and for Yen Hall Farm Racing in the 0-120 Aldiss Seniors’ Handicap Hurdle over 2 1/2 miles at Fakenham on 1 April. We had agreed race tactics with James Best and the race panned out as we hoped, with James sitting behind the leader, on the rail, for the first couple of circuits before asking Eclair to move up through the gears as they turned out of the back straight. A quick burst of acceleration took Eclair firmly into the lead and, although slightly eased over the final 100 yards, Eclair won comfortably by a length. Eclair’s confidence and quality of jumping improved through the race and he showed that he still has some class. It was exciting and we hope that he will continue to improve.

We had bought Eclair for the club at the Tattersalls Sale in November last year but, although he had had an impressive early career (including scoring placed finishes in the Grand Annual and the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festivals in 2020 and 2021), his form had fallen away significantly. He had been sold twice in Ireland before being sent to the sales last November. He was not in a good condition at the sale and his confidence had been badly shaken by a couple of bad falls. We hoped that, with some TLC, we could restore the 9 year old (as he then was) to something like his old form. We turned him out for a couple of months and worked to improve his confidence as well as correcting some physical problems that had developed. We were excited by his performance at home when we brought him back into work and it was very rewarding to see our confidence in him justified by how he performed on the track.

The photographs are courtesy of Nick Butcher of Leaderboard Photography – I hope that you enjoy the obvious determination shown by Eclair as he jumps the final hurdle!

Aldiss Racesday Monday 1st April 2024 – Fakenham, Norfolk.
15:07 – Aldiss Seniors’ Handicap Hurdle (Class 4) (8YO plus) 2m 4f
1st (2) Eclair De Beaufeu 10/1