Interviews with Jonjo O'Neill & Nicky Richards

During the last couple of days, I rounded off the interviews for the new edition of One Jump Ahead. On Wednesday evening, I spoke to Jonjo O'Neill jnr who was en route to riding at Worcester. Jonjo kindly went through over 60 of his father's horses, including some potentially exciting new recruits from the Irish pointing field. Then, on Thursday morning I visited Nicky Richards at Greystoke before working for Racing TV at Carlisle later in the day. The stable suffered the sad loss of their long standing secretary Antonia Reid - who I have known since the late 1990's - who passed away on Saturday. On a more positive note, Nicky is optimistic about the season ahead with a nice mix of promising youngsters and experienced campaigners - there is one particular unraced bumper horse the stable are very optimistic about. All will be revealed in OJA. 

In other news, J.P.McManus has purchased a host of fresh talent from France during the last twelve months and I have received the whereabouts of which trainers will be training those horses - they will sprinkled between the Top 40 and the French Revolution section of OJA. It will be a surprise if there isn't at least one Grade 1 performer between them. They are a batch of cracking prospects.

Switching codes, Top 40 entry Cracksking continues to frustrate finishing third in the one mile three handicap at Southwell on Thursday evening. The Frankel gelding was set an impossible task at Ascot's Shergar Cup meeting on his previous start and, similarly, he was ridden for speed at the Nottinghamshire track. He lacks a turn of foot and is a relentless galloper. Beaten a length in third, the four year old would have been even closer had his rider got after him sooner. I think he will stay a mile and six, if ever asked. All he does is stay.

Pisgah Pike has been a fantastic horse for Value Racing Club and the nine year old recorded his sixth career win at Worcester on Wednesday evening. The former Summer Handicap Hurdle winner returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines recently and looked as tough as ever to win the two miles handicap hurdle at the Midlands venue. Responding generously to Gavin Sheehan's urgings, the Jamie Snowden owned runner led close home to prevail by two and a quarter lengths. It was great to watch and well done to all concerned.