Stratford – 22nd August 2019 - Thank You Simon Richards Handicap Chase

Stratford – 22nd August 2019 – Thank You Simon Richards Handicap Chase

A group of seven shareholders travelled to Stratford with high hopes that his previous run would have brought Fr Humphrey forward and that we would see him go close or possibly win.

Ewart, Rainer, Nigel, Alan, Clarissa, Lawrence and Phil were all at Stratford for the race, on what was a blustery August afternoon. Our race was late on the card at 3.50pm which meant that the group had plenty of time to enjoy the earlier races and take advantage of the complimentary lunch provided by Stratford in their owners and trainers bar.

It did not take long for our turn to come around however and most of the group headed down to the pre-parade ring to watch Humphrey getting saddled before following him through into the paddock. He was the consummate professional pre-race, taking everything in his stride and he was fitted with blinkers on this occasion which he had worn for his last win in Ireland.

Our jockey, Tom Scudamore, joined us in the paddock and reported that there would be plenty of pace with several wanting to get to the lead, so we decided to ask Tom to settle Fr Humphrey just in behind the leaders. That plan went well and whilst he did not jump very well on occasions (more on that later), he travelled well throughout the first circuit and a half. He did make a blunder at the first in the home straight on the penultimate circuit and a worse one at the last fence in the same straight. After that he was slow at the next three jumps and whilst he made ground on the flat, he came to a virtual stop after the second last and Tom pulled him up.

Tom later reported that he went from going well to not going at all in a matter of strides and the reason for this was not obvious. We did have some doubts over the distance of the race and Fr Humphrey’s lack of previous success going left-handed and whilst both could have been an issue, they should not have caused him to stop as he did. Another possible reason for the poor run was identified later when back in the stables, Dalpat who was looking after Fr Humphrey identified that he had lost a shoe. It would seem that Fr Humphrey caught his foreleg with one of his back legs during the race and had torn off a front shoe. This probably happened when he made his second mistake which was the more serious of the two errors he made and he did not jump particular well after that, so this could also have been a factor.

It was a disappointed group that set off for home, but that is horse racing and we would simply have to dust ourselves off and go again!