Loosen My Load

Loosen My Load put up a nice performance to win his beginners’ chase over two and a half miles at Punchestown last Tuesday. Settled just behind the leaders in the early stages by Andrew Lynch, the Henry de Bromhead-trained gelding jumped really well for a debutant, took it up off long-time clear leader Trimbellina between the last two fences, and cleared away on the run-in to win readily.

The defection of Head Of The Posse obviously made Alan Potts’s gelding’s task a lot simpler, but there was a lot to like about the way that he travelled and jumped, and he could hardly have won any easier. A high class novice hurdler last season, who won a Grade 2 contest at Cheltenham’s November meeting on ground that would have been soft enough for him, he clearly thrived on this faster ground, bouncing off it and jumping well. He wore a tongue-tie here for the first time, perhaps precipitated by his previous run when he finished fifth behind Blackstairmountain at Punchestown on ground that was officially described as good but which rode a fair bit softer than that, by all accounts, and it may be that he will have to be kept to good ground next season.

Significantly, this is the race that Henry de Bromhead won with Sizing Europe last year, the trainer obviously holds Loosen My Load in high regard, and he could be one of the top novice chasers this season. He is out of a Phardante mare from the family of Cab On Target, so it may be that he will get be better stepping up in distance from this two and a half miles rather than stepping down, as his stable companion did, but whichever route he takes, he is an exciting chaser in the making.

18th May 2010