Another high-profile double at Doncaster shown live on ITV on Saturday took our score for the season to 44 winners.
Our horses continue to run well and have earned prize money of almost £800,000 which now puts us in ninth place in the trainers’ table.
Park Princess set the tone for the day with a brilliant victory in the opening three mile Listed mares’ novice hurdle by twenty one lengths in the colours of Peter Jones and Diana Goodall.
She is a lovely mare, very professional and cruised to the front in the straight before breezing home unchallenged with her stable companion Limerick Lass also collecting black type in third place
Park Princess is in the Albert Bartlett at the Cheltenham Festival and I wouldn’t rule it out for her provided she comes out of the race in good shape. We also have the option of trying to get her into a handicap at Aintree.
Just over an hour later Jasmin de Grugy bounced back to form in the colours of JP McManus with a decisive success in the £70,000 Grimthorpe Handicap Chase.
Our other contender Dartmoor Pirate was locked in a battle for second place when he misjudged the final fence and unluckily unseated Rex Dingle.
I thought the very soft ground had probably gone against Jasmin de Grugy and really liked the chances of Dartmoor Pirate.
It was a funny race because the leader Some Scope soon established a long lead but Richie McLernon was prepared to be patient and timed his run perfectly on Jasmin de Grugy.
He’s a horse who has been a bit of an enigma since he won five races in a row and now that we know he handles testing conditions we will have a good look at the programme book.
