A rewarding season got even better on Saturday as FORWARD PLAN won the most valuable race of my career as a trainer.
It felt pretty good to be taking three runners with a chance to the £150,000 Coral Trophy Handicap Chase at Kempton and it felt a great deal better as Forward Plan finished with a rare rattle to land the first prize of £85,425 for twelve strong The Steeplechasers.
His stable companion the top weight Sam Brown, aged twelve, ran a stormer to finish fifth and Blackjack Magic would have been in the money too, but for falling at the last fence.
But the day belonged to Forward Plan and Ben Godfrey who were only sixth landing over the second last fence before starting an irresistible run that took them to a decisive victory at the line.
Forward Plan has been a remarkable horse when you think that he got beaten over hurdles off marks of 103 and 105. It’s amazing where the improvement has come from.
We always felt that chasing was going to be his game but I can’t say I expected him to reach his current level of 133 and triumph in a race worth £25,000 more than the Ultima at the Cheltenham Festival.
Along the way he has given his owners no end of fun and earned loads of prize money for them. Forward Plan is likely to miss Cheltenham and wait for the valuable Aintree handicap that we won with Sam Brown two years ago.
I’m delighted that Ben Godfrey has forged such a fantastic partnership with Forward Plan.
Ben is level headed, works very hard, is always professional and has upped his game tactically with experience. He deserves all the success that comes his way.
With 34 winners so far our horses remain in fine form and have earned almost £600,000 with two months of the season remaining.
