Golden Wonder Wins Crisply

Glimpse of Gold won again at Fakenham on 22 May! We were confident that he would try his best but, carrying 9 pounds more than the odds-on favourite and more than a stone more than the other runner in the small field of three, it looked a tough ask. As they left the back straight for the final time, the favourite was moving ominously easily and Paddy Brennan was still sitting motionlessly as they matched strides with Gold who was, once again, ridden brilliantly by Tom Scudamore. But Gold was determined not to be beaten and, hugging the rail and jumping superbly, he was a length up as they went into the final bend …. and came out of the turn six lengths ahead, jumped the final obstacle smoothly and went on to win by eight and a half lengths. Gold had joined the yard in 2020 with a hurdles mark of 95 but this latest win was off a mark of 116, a career high – and that is even more remarkable given that he is now 11 years old. He loves life and lives for racing and relishes the tight left-handed turns of the Fakenham track – he also loves good summer ground and so we shall be visiting other left-handed tracks, ideally as tight as possible.

Gold’s win capped a very good week. Gloire D’Athon ran another excellent race at Huntingdon on 17 May, finishing 2nd and, as The Racing Post said, he “was unfortunate to bump into a well-treated one on this occasion”.  He jumps very well and will now go chasing and we are sure that he will win very soon. The irrepressible Railway Muice ran at Market Rasen on 19 May and, like Gold, he is running off a career high handicap and carrying a lot of weight. Also like Gold, he always gives his best and gave another impressive display of courage and determination, eventually finishing a more than respectable 3rd, carrying eight pounds more than the winning favourite.

Here is a great photograph of Gold showing his stylish jumping at Fakenham: images courtesy of Adrian Judd of Leaderboardphotograph.com.