Pant Wilkin Blog

Looksnowtlikebrian is an exciting young staying chaser in the making and he coped with the drop back in trip when winning narrowly at Ayr yesterday, providing Richard Johnson with his 150th winner of the season!

Settled in second, Looksnowtlikebrian failed to jump with much fluency and, though he travelled well through the contest, those mistakes looked like they might prove his undoing as he duelled with the eventual runner-up from the home bend all the way to the line.  However, he definitely has a good engine and, despite losing ground over the fences, he had enough class to get the better of his main rival close home, following up his win at Ffos Las in December.

He’ll have plenty more schooling next week, but will be better suited when conditions are in his favour and he remains a progressive young chaser to follow.  Congratulations to his owners Steve and Reg Botham!

Having looked very unlucky not to win on his reappearance at Stratford in October, Normandy King atoned for his last-fence blunder that day when winning well at Southwell yesterday under Alan Johns.

He jumped really nicely in the main and was travelling best from some way out, and a slight mistake at the last wasn’t enough to stop him winning by just over three lengths.

He has always shown ability in his work at home and hopefully this win will represent the start of him fulfilling that promise on the racecourse.  I am delighted for his owners The 600 Club, who have been very patient with him.

We took two Oceans Racing horses to Ascot on Saturday and were delighted to come away with a winner and a fifth, Point Of Principle just getting the better of a ding-dong battle from the last, stretching his neck out to win by the minimum margin.

A smart performer in bumpers, his close seventh in the Grade 2 contest at Aintree last April has proved incredibly strong form and he went on to finish fourth at Cheltenham on his hurdling debut in October before finding only Silver Concorde too good at Musselburgh the following month.

We hold him in high regard, which is why he was pitched in a strong novice contest at Ascot, and he duly delivered with a tremendously game effort.  There is still improvement to be made in the jumping department (though he was very good indeed at the last two), but he has an engine and we may look to return to Aintree in April, with the likelihood of one more run in between.

I checked this morning and Point Of Principle’s win means we have now had a winner at every National Hunt track in the country, which is an achievement that we can all be very proud of!  Ticking off Cheltenham and Ascot (where we had a few close seconds, notably Rigidity in the Ladbroke in 2011 and Saved By John in a valuable handicap chase in 2013) this season means a lot to all the team and hopefully we won’t have to wait as long for our next winners at both tracks going forwards!

Laugharne ran a cracker on his first start for us, having been purchased for £15,000 at Ascot in November.  He was short of room on a couple of occasions and Alan just found himself a little further back than ideal when the race began in earnest, but he stayed on really nicely and I am looking forward to seeing him next time.  It was also pleasing to see Officer Hoolihan return to some form and I’m sure he can improve again when encountering spring ground in the weeks ahead.

Jaunty Flyer has been a very solid performer in maiden and novice company over hurdles this term and the son of Sulamani got off the mark over timber when dead-heating at Catterick yesterday under Alan Johns.

Having placed over 3m at Ffos Las in November and then third at Chepstow on his latest outing, the 2m3f trip around Catterick was definitely going to be on the short side for him and so it proved, as he looked in top gear most of the way round and, having been headed inside the final furlong, he looked set for second.  However, he showed an excellent attitude to rally and force a dead-heat on the line.

He is an embryonic chaser and this season has been about gaining experience, but we’ll step him back up in trip next time and hopefully he can win another novice contest in the coming weeks for his owner David Fox.  Looking ahead, I am very much looking forward to getting him started over fences in the autumn.