28 April 2009 Scene & Heard: West Norfolk - Fakenham
by Carolyn Tanner
"We don't know if he'll be up to Open company or not - we'll have to see," said David Kemp prior to Where's My Baby's first foray into the class, but the seven-year-old rose to the occasion in the hands of super-sub Andrew Braithwaite, getting the better of Go North and Gun Smith in a blanket finish.
David was sidelined with facial injuries two months ago, and Andrew has now partnered Where's My Baby to a hat-trick of victories. The next stop could be a Folkestone Hunter Chase.
Go North could perhaps be considered unlucky, as he was facing the wrong way when the starter let them go, losing ten lengths in the process, and leaving his rider Stuart Morris far from happy.
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Go North's trainer Nibby Bloom had earlier saddled Bunratty's Sole to win the Confined Conditions. It was an emotional victory for owner Sandra Fryer, Bunratty's Sole having been the last horse owned by her husband Dick before he died two years ago, and he was also Nibby's final ride before he hung up his boots at the corresponding meeting last year. "He's very arrogant," commented Nibby of his charge, who has broken down twice and has been the beneficiary of stem cell treatment. "When he's well he's not a lovely ride!"
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Bunratty's Sole was the second leg of a double for Gina Andrews, who 35 minutes previously had won the Hunt race on Toe To Hand, a well-deserved winner for handler Will Wales, who in his role as joint-Clerk of the Course had produced the track in such good condition. "If we were third I'd have been chuffed to bits," admitted Will, describing Toe To Hand as "very slow."
Like Andrew Braithwaite, Gina was deputising for David Kemp, who would have been in the plate had he been fit. "David deserves the credit, as he did all the donkey work when the horse wasn't quite right," stressed Will.
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It was a day of mixed fortunes for Matt Smith. The high spot of his day was winning the Restricted on Dix Huit Cyborg, for whom he was booked on Tuesday by trainer Nick Kent. The chestnut, a half-brother to the Cheltenham Cross-Country Chase winner Dix Villez, is now likely to go Hunter Chasing.
On the down side, Matt was fined £75 for using his whip with excessive force and frequency on third-placed Confined runner Philson-Warrior, a penalty against which he is considering an appeal. And the gods were against him in the Maiden, in which he did extremely well to maintain the partnership with the well-fancied The Legal Limit as far as the tenth fence, a leather having broken at the first.
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The Maiden went to Tuesday Club, who had some very uninspiring form under Rules for Jim Old prior to joining Henry Hill's yard at Great Gidding. "I did a swap for a hunter with Robert Crosby," explained Henry, who considered that Tuesday Club's fall at Horseheath last month, far from knocking his confidence, had been a factor in the horse's education.
Fakenham could not have been a more appropriate venue for rider George Kennedy's first success, the Irishman having originally run a livery yard in West Norfolk when he came to England four years ago. He has been head lad at the Hill yard for the past year.
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Claire Allen, who had written off her car a few days earlier, made her four-and-a-half hour journey worthwhile by winning the Ladies' Open on Scotland Yard. The partnership is now unbeaten in three runs between the flags, and a run in Stratford's ladies' Hunter Chase at the end of May could be on the agenda. Claire's only previous visit to the track had been about ten years ago, when she had led up a horse for Philip Pritchard.
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It was a less successful afternoon for the day's other long distance traveller Donal Devereux, whose agent Dave Roberts had arranged for him to partner Clash, winner of the Maiden 12 months ago under Rhys Flint. Sent off favourite for the Restricted, Clash was always labouring, and he stopped to nothing after two circuits. Owner-trainer Don Cantillon, whose intent is to take Clash to the May sales, had no explanation to offer to the stewards for the performance.
Donal, who is attached to Peter Bowen's Pembrokeshire yard and will be turning conditional at the end of the amateur season, fared slightly better in the Open, in which his mount Gun Smith finished third after being nailed close home by Where's My Baby and Go North.
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Scotland Yard's stable companion Deckie, who was trained by David Kemp to win 11 races for Walter and Fleur Hawes, had his last race in the Men's Open and has been retired to go hunting. Despite winning Fontwell's Foxhunter Trial Hunter Chase in 2007, the much-criticised balloting system left him on the sidelines for the Cheltenham classic.
