Baby Ticker wins at Hexham

Baby Ticker gave our yard their initial victory of the 2019-20 season, when battling on from the last to get the better of a couple of rivals (sorry Lucinda - well, not really!) in a tight finish to the opening 2½ mile handicap hurdle at Hexham yesterday.
The conditions were really testing but Baby Ticker was back on her last winning mark and she was able to build on her promising seasonal opening run at Ayr a couple of weeks ago to win. She will be an 11 year old in a couple of weeks, so this may be her last season so we're all delighted that she managed a second win in her career.

It was a poignant moment for the family, as Baby Ticker was bred and owned by the late Charlie 'Chuck' Whillans who passed away over a year ago. Now running in the colours of son Donald and ridden by grandson Callum, it was a victory that brought back fond memories of 'Chuck', more so as in a few days time he shares a birth day with ol' JC himself.

Donald receives the prize following Baby Ticker's success

And a couple of races later, Stainsby Girl ran a very fine race when narrowly beaten into second place in the 2 mile mares' novices hurdle. Relishing the underfoot conditions, the mare was having only her second race over hurdles and was just beaten on the run-in by Jedd O'Keefe's 125 rated mare Miah Grace.

Stainsby Girl (blue cap) battles hard towards the finish

ps It was good to see new-ish Dodlands owners Bill & Carol Aitchison at Hexham, and nice of them to pop over to offer hearty congratulations on Baby's win.

pps Many thanks to Ian Hall for sending in a couple of action photos from Hexham

Newcastle tomorrow

A couple of runners late on in the Newcastle card, so that'll give us plenty time to pop down the road after morning work-outs. Callum is in the saddle for both races.

In a fairly high quality novice chase at 2.50, Dali Mail makes his debut over fences. Although only facing 4 rivals, each of these horses have BHA ratings higher than our lad. But, you've got to start somewhere and we'd hope for a nice round of jumping to start the chasing career for this 6 year old gelding.

Best of luck to John & Nicola Mackin and friends of The Zidane Partnership.

The grey Dali Mail leads Stainsby Girl in a recent gallop

Next race is the closer of the day, a 16 runner bumper where the 5 year old Honda Fifty returns to the scene of his debut when he was runner up in March. The Arakan gelding will be suited by the track, but we'd imagine less so by the soft ground. He runs in he stable colours.

There's several horse who have already showed impressive form in bumpers (Call Me Freddie, Penny Blak and Six One Nine) while Rose, Lucinda and Kinneston Nick all run racecourse debutants with nice pedigrees.
Fascinating race.

Honda Fifty