Leave of Absence delivered a significant success for the yard from the front in his first handicap over fences at Newbury on Friday in the colours of Richard and Carol Cheshire.
He was our 43rd winner of the season which is one more than our best total achieved last season.
Leave of Absence was one of several horses sent to us by the Cheshires in the autumn and has proved very straightforward as he hadn’t run for 758 days before his first start for us in November when he finished an encouraging second to Iberico Lord on his debut over fences.
He again ran well and picked up some decent prize money when a distant runner up to The Changing Man in the Reynoldstown Chase at Ascot where his jumping was far from foot perfect.
Rex Dingle basically had to nag him round that day and has worked hard with Charles Foot at home since then to get him to become more fluent at his fences.
Their efforts paid off at Newbury where Leave of Absence was running off an opening mark of 127. It was brilliant to see him dominate from the front and see off the challengers queuing up to take him on from the third last fence.
His jumping was much better, more than adequate and he was staying on strongly from the last fence.
Before joining us Leave of Absence was a smart horse in bumpers and also won on his hurdles debut at Ascot in October 2022 before suffering the injury that put him on the side-lines for so long.
I’m not sure whether he will run him again this season. Further ahead he could be one for the Badger Beer Chase first time out at Wincanton. He should certainly handle softer ground than he encountered at Newbury.
