Hackberry wins at the first time of asking

Brian Ellison was kind enough to give me a handful of unraced bumper horses to follow for One Jump Ahead when we spoke in August. These included Hackberry (5/4) who justified strong market support to win on his racecourse debut at Newcastle on Friday. A well bred son of Nathaniel, he was a Juddmonte cast off who was bought at the end of January last for 12,000gns. Given plenty of time, he is from the family of Banks Hill and Intercontinental and was partnered by champion jockey Brian Hughes. Positioned handily early on, the pace was steady and once hitting the front inside the final quarter of a mile, it took a while before penny dropped and the four year old was headed with a furlong to run. However, he picked up well leading close home and was value for more than the winning margin of a neck. 

Fingers crossed, we get some action on the turf on Saturday with Chepstow and Wincanton due to have early morning inspections. Thankfully, there doesn't appear to be any problems at Kempton with the Lanzarote Hurdle and Grade 2 Silviniaco Conti Chase the feature events. I will be back to update the Diary over the weekend.