Hey Big Spender

Hey Big Spender put up a nice performance to win the near-three-mile novices’ handicap chase at Newbury on Saturday. Colin Tizzard’s gelding jumped well enough in the main, with the exception of the cross fence on the first circuit, at one fence down the back, which he banked, and at the last, in a race that was littered with fallers and mistakes. A half-brother to Miss Orchestra, he travelled well on the outside in mid-division, forsaking ground but getting a clear view of his fences, and moved nicely to join the front rank going down the back straight. It looked like he and Fistral Beach had it between them leaving the back straight, but he stayed on much better than the Paul Nicholls horse up the home straight. Fistral Beach has a bit of a name as an issue-dodger at this stage – six seconds and a third in eight runs will do that to you – but he didn’t appear to fail here through lack of effort, he appeared to be simply beaten by a better horse.

Hey Big Spender has won on soft ground before. He’s a bit novicey, but he should improve as his jumping improves, and his jumping did improve as he warmed up in the race. He is a big horse who should continue to progress. This track, big galloping, where he has time to organise himself, is ideal. He ran here off his hurdles mark of 130 and the handicapper has raised him 8lb, which is fair. He won over two and a half miles on soft ground at Chepstow over hurdles and, given his breeding and the manner in which he saw this out, he should stay a fair bit further than this. He is only six, this was just his second chase, he is lightly-raced overall and he should be worth following again now.

28th November 2009