The White Mouse

The White Mouse was impressive in winning the mares’ handicap hurdle. Settled towards the rear of the field early on and towards the outside, she travelled well through her race for Richard Johnson and she warmed to her jumping, even if she was a little to her left at a couple of her obstacles. She was wide throughout, she gave away ground at the turns, but she remained in a good rhythm, largely uninterrupted. She travelled well down the back straight, moved up just behind the leaders on the run to the end of the back straight, and travelled well into the home straight. Perfect Myth kicked for home from the second last flight, but The White Mouse was quickly out after her. She closed to within two lengths of the leader by the time they reached the last and, despite getting in tight to the final flight, she stayed on strongly up the run-in to get up and win by two lengths, going away.

It was a fine training performance by Lucy Wadham to produce The White Mouse in this form, to put up a performance like this, on her first run in 595 days. This was her first run since she clipped heels on the home turn when travelling well in the mares’ novices’ hurdle final at Newbury in March 2019. She had won two of her hurdle races before that, and she proved here that she retains lots of ability. She was weak in the pre-race market too, so it is reasonable to expect that she will improve for this, her first run in so long. She is only six and this was just her fifth run over hurdles, so she has lots of scope for progression. She wasn’t overly fluent at her hurdles here, so she should improve as she becomes slicker over her obstacles, and she could do even better back on a left-handed track.

Wincanton, 7^th November 2020