Soaring Glory

There was a lot to like about the performance that Soaring Glory put up in winning the listed two-mile handicap hurdle at Ascot last Saturday. Things didn’t go very smoothly for him early on, he was well back in the field early on and his jumping wasn’t overly fluent. Tom Scudamore briefly explored a run up the inside on the run up the side of the track, but that option was closed off by Fergus Gillard on Leoncavallo, with the result that Soaring Glory had to come outside in order to make his ground. He made it quite quickly though on the run to the home turn, and he was quickly back on the bridle, his rider obviously keen not to go to the front too early. He found lots though when his rider asked him to pick up, and he came away from Leoncavallo and Boothill nicely from the final flight.

This was a really nice start to the season by Jonjo O’Neill’s horse. A little weak in the pre-raced market, it was a really nice start to his second season, and he probably won with a fair bit more in hand than the bare winning margin. The handicapper raised him by 7lb to a mark of 150 but, a six-year-old who has now raced just seven times over hurdles, he has the potential to go beyond that mark. He is in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham on Sunday, but he would be of even greater interest if he waited for the Gerry Feilden Hurdle at Newbury, a race that was mentioned by his trainer in post-race musings, back at the track at which he won the Betfair Hurdle.
Ascot 30^th October 2021