Tarablaze

Tarablaze produced a nice effort to finish third to Wymott, on his first run since February 2009, in what looked like a very decent two-and-a-half-mile beginners’ chase at Bangor on Wednesday. Held up towards the rear of the seven-runner field by Richard Johnson in the early stages, he gradually made his way up to the leaders with some very neat jumps on the inside. He was the only one who could go with Wymott, who quickened up before the second last fence, but the lack of a recent run may have just started to tell when he got a bit tired before the last fence, which he jumped slowly. He was eventually passed by the staying-on Pearlysteps for second but there was still a lot to like about this run and there is surely a lot more to come from him.

This race was won by the top novice Burton Port last season and it looked like a fairly useful renewal beforehand with a few promising types lining up. The winner Wymott, owned, like Burton Port, by Trevor Hemmings, was impressive and it may be that connections decided to aim him for this, as it seemed that he was that bit fitter than Tarablaze. Nevertheless, Philip Hobbs’ gelding was well-backed beforehand and ran a cracker, he jumped and travelled really well, on his first run in all of 634 days. He was last seen winning the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, formerly known as the Prestige Hurdle, in really good style, which was actually the same race Wymott won last season, where the Donald McCain’s horse accounted for subsequent Grade 1 winner Wayward Prince.

Winner of a point-to-point in Ireland, the son of Kayf Tara should be much better for this and should be able to win a beginners’ chase without any fuss soon before going on to bigger things.

11th November 2010