FOUNTAINS CHIEF gained our first success of the new season with a dominant triumph ridden by Rex Dingle in a Class 4 maiden hurdle over two and three quarter miles at Fontwell on Wednesday evening.
Keen throughout, he led from start to finish in the colours of the Fountains Partnership, was notably strong at the finish and coasted home eleven lengths ahead of the favourite Art of Illusion.
Having won a bumper at Stratford last May, trained by my sister Teresa Clark, he has been point-to-pointing this spring without much luck. As his jumping has been an issue on a couple of occasions his owners were keen to see how he fared over hurdles.
He was only just beaten on his debut for us in a bumper at Fontwell a month ago and seemed to relish the step up in trip on Wednesday. There should be more to come from Fountains Chief after this pleasing victory.
We don’t tend to run much at this time of year, so it was good that three of our team of four at Fontwell were placed during the evening. With Forward Plan earning over £3,000 for finishing second in the novice handicap hurdle before Monteplex came third in the bumper.
