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Video of the Race

The big decision pre race was whether to run or not.  Chasing the best ground it was a case of running at Worcester or waiting until the following day to go to Fakenham for likely faster ground but a much higher class race.  The final call was not made until a couple of hours before the race, when Phil who had travelled up alone met up with Paul, Kate and Arthur.  Leaving Kate and Arthur in the O&T bar, Phil and Paul walked the course right up around the top bend to check the ground.  Any softer patches were all right on the inside and it was decided that TWYD should take his chance.

Closer to race time, Anita and Ray joined the group although unfortunately Lawrence texted to advised that he was stuck in traffic and had decided to return home.

Ours was race 1, so we headed for the pre parade ring where we met Liz Harrington and the stable staff who were with The Way You Dance.  In the paddock we met our jockey for the day, the very experienced Tom Scudamore who was onboard in place of Sean Corby who was on holiday.

Tom was instructed to let TWYD get into a rhythm over the first few and to give him a good sight of his fences as we were slightly worried that his problems jumping out of soft ground last race might have dented his confidence.

When they jumped off, these fears proved well founded.  The Way You Dance never really looked comfortable over his fences and his 4th place finish was the best he ever really looked like achieving aside from a brief point turning for home.

Tom Scudamore reported that the ground was fine, but that his careful jumping had cost TWYD any chance.  Tom felt that he had got better as the race went on and coming into the straight Tom felt that TWYD was coming back on the bridle and had a chance of catching those in front, but needing to jump quickly at the last couple was beyond him and the careful jumping cost him any chance.

Tom’s did feel that TWYD would “find a way” of negotiating fences and that it was worth giving him another try over them.  Neil called soon after the race and said that the first half of the race had gone as he expected and that he also thought TWYD was warming to the task as the race progressed.  He was not too disappointed and thought that TWYD would be OK when he got his confidence back.

A disappointing result though and a lot of schooling required before we give him another try.