Harris treble lights up Sedgefield
Good ground conditions are dictating where our jumps trainers place their horses presently, and this is one of several reasons why Warminster - based Milton Harris chose to send 4 horses to Sedgefield today - a round trip of over 600 miles. A few showers turned the going part way through the afternoon to Good To Soft - a going description unfamiliar to any British - based trainer for many months.
That it turned into a productive trip surprises no-one in Wiltshire, as Milton's horses have been firing all summer. A treble brought his current strike rate up to 50% over the past fortnight, after winners at Newton Abbot yesterday and Market Rasen on Saturday. Milton's not a man not to run his horses. 39 individual horses have run for him this season to date, of which there have been 13 individual winners. Something for nearly everyone then...
Today's winners included Mordred, reappearing just 9 days after winning a maiden hurdle at Plumpton to win a handicap chase off a low weight. Mordred was the subject of a previous blog when winning a brace of races at St Moritz on the ice in February. Now there's some versatility.
Gentle Slopes made a winning debut under Rules after winning a Tyrella Maiden Point-to-Point back in March. Expect more from him.
Four Year old Legionar hasn't got his head in front since winning a bumper at Aintree last November. This scarce German - bred won his Novice Hurdle fluently under Mitchell Bastyan, and may not need to travel quite so far to win again.
It's a sad indictment of our national racing daily that a treble doesn't merit any coverage, but since the Racing Post ceased to send reporters to far - flung Jumps meetings, the quality of coverage has been the poorer. That said, every self - respecting stable now has a social media correspondent, so perhaps we're all in charge of making our own news.