GAVIN CROMWELL BLOG: Champion Hurdle Winning Trainer and BETDAQ Brand Ambassador Gavin Cromwell recaps a winning weekend that followed his Cheltenham success, previews a quartet of runners over the next couple of days, and confirms his plans for Espoir D’Allen.
Great yard form continues
After the amazing week we had at Cheltenham with Espoir D’Allen winning the Champion Hurdle, it’s great that the yard has stayed in good form with two more winners.
Biddy The Boss got the job done nicely at Down Royal last Saturday. She burst a blood vessel pretty badly on her previous run, so we gave her plenty of time to get over it. She’s a fantastic jumper and that’s what won her the race.
She’s shown plenty of ability over fences and we’re hopeful that she’ll be better over them than she was over hurdles.
We’ve actually decided to run her this weekend at Bangor in a mares’ handicap chase on Saturday (4.00pm). She’s come out of that win really well and with any luck, she can take another step forward and put in a good performance.
It was fantastic to get another winner with Ejayteekay at Navan on Monday. She ran well behind another one of ours, Ming Dynasty, at Naas on her previous start, so we were hopeful she’d come on again and she did.
She hasn’t always settled, but Paul [Towend] got her in a lovely spot and she picked up nicely when he asked her to.
Weekend runners
We’ve got a few runners on Sunday, starting with Lady Ischia in the maiden hurdle (2.15pm) at Downpatrick.
She’s a mare we’ve always held in pretty high regard, but having run well in some hot bumpers, she hasn’t been able to put it together over hurdles yet. Barry [Geraghty] takes the ride and if she can show us what she’s does at home on the track, she’ll have a great chance.
Cray runs in the handicap hurdle (3.20pm). It’s his first run in a handicap and in all honesty, I’m not sure if he’s well-handicapped or not. This race will tell us a lot more about him and we’ll be able to plot the rest of the season with him afterwards.
Our final runner at Downpatrick is Allduckornodinner in the handicap chase (4.25pm)
Before his last run, he’d been pretty consistent for us, so with any luck he’s back to that sort of form. If he handles the track, I’d like to think he’ll go well.
Over at Naas, we run Ciao in the Irish Lincolnshire (4.10pm). He’s been very consistent on the all-weather, winning twice including last week.
He’s got a seven pound penalty for that, but we’ve got a good draw in stall seven and hopefully he can run well again. It’s obviously a very competitive race and you need plenty of luck, but he’s improving all the time so hopefully he can put in another good run.
Espoir D’Allen
I mentioned last week that it was unlikely that Espoir D’Allen would run again this season and that’s the decision we’ve made. He’s actually left the yard already and being just a five-year-old, he should strengthen up for another summer on his back.
We’re very lucky to have a horse like him and he’s given the yard it’s biggest day so far. We’ll plan next season around a repeat bid at the Champion Hurdle and if he can maintain the form of this year, it will take a good one to beat him.
