A double on Monday, coupled with two close seconds, maintained the excellent strike rate of our team on the eve of the Cheltenham Festival.
We are now just two winners short of our best total of 48 winners achieved last season and hopefully we can keep up the current momentum for the rest of the campaign.
Catchintsavo was the first to strike on Monday with an impressive success from the front under a penalty in a two and a half mile novice hurdle ridden by Rex Dingle in the colours of the House Family partnership.
The speed he shows has surprised us a bit because we felt he was an out and out galloper. His jumping was again really slick and bold at Plumpton, much like a handicapper.
Catchintsavo is already looking like a lovely chasing prospect for next season. But before then we plan to send him to Aintree’s Grand National meeting for either a handicap hurdle or a valuable novice event.
Frenati completed the double on Monday with a gutsy success in a fiercely tight triple photo finish in the bumper at Stratford with the help of a determined ride by Sam Twiston-Davies.
She is out of a smart mare owned by the Waley-Cohen’s and has been with us since we bought her as a yearling. She ran better than it looked on her debut at Doncaster before tiring late on and had come on plenty for the experience,
Sam reported that Frenati got a bit unbalanced when she was headed on the final bend before finding a seam on the rail and rallying strongly to gain the verdict on the line.
She is likely to be seen next in a mares’ bumper in April ahead of running in a maiden hurdle in May.
