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Photos From The Day

Video of the Race

After early season injury, the long awaited chase debut of Oscara Dara dawned bright and dry although the cold and rain of previous days had already fixed heavy ground conditions.

An early start for Plumpton with 19 owners (and guests) expected, there were a lot of badges to sort out.  Greeted at the gate by the car park attendant who cheerfully informed us that the other Nicky Henderson horse was a non runner, “Don’t worry” he assured us, “Yours still runs!”

No card machine in the Owners and Trainers Badge Collection, so it was off to the Racecourse Office to pay for our extra badges.  Having sorted this we went down the corridor, downstairs, round the stand, up the steps and into the Owners and Trainers bar where we found a door the other side of which was the racecourse office!

Decent coffee and free cake and for a while BG Racing had the Owners and Trainers bar as a private box although eventually the party was gatecrashed by owners of other runners.

The mood was optimistic with Oscara Dara forecast to go off at odds on and with our race being the second of the afternoon, it was not long before we were making our way out to the pre-parade ring.

Alex (Oscara’s lad) reported that Oscara Dara had never been better and was flying at home.  He also noted that Oscara had schooled well.

Over in the saddling boxes we had with the benefit of hindsight perhaps the first warning sign from our lad who was very restless and jumpy during saddling.  This is unusual as he is usually very calm, but not on this occasion.  No real alarms though and we headed through to the paddock to meet David Bass.  David was hoping to get a lead, but said he would be happy to make the running if necessary.

In no time, the horses were out to the course and the race was off!

Oscara Dara jumped accurately and steadily.  He was a little slow at the ditch on the first circuit but jumped it cleanly and passed the winning post for the final circuit in good position stalking the two leaders.  Down the hill on the back straight though the warning signs were easy to see though as David was flat out to keep Oscara in contention.  To his credit, OD responded well and was almost back with the leaders when he got to the ditch.  This time round he twisted in the air and lost a fair bit of momentum, immediately going back under pressure.  Responding again he rallied as Cantlow took the lead two out and for a moment looked like he might get past into the lead, but again he was out-jumped at the last two fences and was fairly comfortably held in second.  That said, both the front two galloped all the way to the line and this provided some hope that Oscara might improve over further.

David reported the same immediately on unsaddling.  He felt that Oscara would definitely stay two and half miles and probably further and indicated that he had simply been taken off his feet down the hill in the back straight.  He felt that Oscara had jumped quite carefully and that the run would bring him on both in fitness and in jumping.

Initial disappointment was tempered by the fact that Oscara Dara was giving away fitness and experience to his rivals and that Cantlow is definitely a smart performer and we look forward to stepping him up in trip next time out.