Newbury felt underwhelming

Have looked forward to Newbury's opening jumps fixture on Thursday all week, one couldn't help feeling somewhat underwhelmed by the end of play. Admittedly, there were some useful performances, not least from Cheltenham Gold Cup / Grand National hopeful Haiti Couleurs who got his latest campaign off to the best possible start with victory in the Pertemps qualifier. His regular partner Sean Bowen will be hoping Rebecca Curtis elects to run her stable star in the Grade 1 Betfair Chase at Haydock later this month rather than return to the Berkshire track for the Coral Gold Cup because Olly Murphy's Resplendent Grey booked his place for the latter with victory at Carlisle last weekend. Either way, the improving eight year old has plenty more to offer and could yet emerge as a live player in the steeplechasing's blue riband next spring.

I don't know whether it was because only four horses contested the two chases on the card, or the fact the groundstaff / clerk of the course elected to put a running rail down the middle of the track making the hurdles course much tighter than usual, but the meeting just didn't have its usual feel. Perhaps the officials were trying to preserve the ground for the 'Hennessy meeting' later this month, but Newbury will quickly become known as a tight sharp track on the hurdles course, rather than what we know it best for - one of the fairest tracks in the country with its big galloping nature. 

Philip Hobbs and Johnson White's novice hurdlers continue in superb form and twenty four hours after Sober Glory's win at Chepstow, stablemate Captain Hugo produced a gutsy effort to land the two miles maiden hurdle. The Soldier of Fortune gelding had impressed when winning on his second start in a bumper at Worcester in May and confirmed it here with a good display. It is only a matter of time before the runner-up Sinnatra goes one better. Like a lot of Dan Skelton's novice hurdlers, he didn't look fully tuned for the day and will improve markedly as the season goes on. He is a nice prospect. The two disappointments of the race were Wilstar (last of eight finishers) and the well bred Joyau Allen (returning from an absence of 622 days, the full-brother to Envoi Allen reportedly bled). In the former's case, it was too bad to be true.

Overall, it was another profitable afternoon for followers of One Jump Ahead - the winners included Captain Hugo (7/2), Haiti Couleurs (17/2), Jackie Hobbs (13/8), Tiptoptim (1/4) and Treasure Planet (10/11).

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