Transmission

It was the winning rider Joe Anderson more than the horse who deservedly attracted the lion’s share of the attention after the Class 2 three-mile-one-furlong handicap hurdle at Plumpton last Sunday, but the horse deserves plenty of credit too. Joe Anderson did remarkably well to remain on board when Transmillion made a bad mistake at the fourth flight, and to recover his equilibrium. He got his irons back passing the stands with a circuit to go, and then proceeded to deliver Transmission with a winning run, hitting the front at the second last flight and keeping on well to win nicely. That mistake had to have cost the horse plenty of energy as well as momentum and ground, and he had to have at least a little more in hand than the winning margin.

Second behind Inthepocket in a maiden hurdle at Wexford early last season when he was with Colm Murphy, Neil Mulholland’s horse finished a close-up third behind Top Cloud and Scamallach Liath in a novices’ handicap hurdle at Ascot on his previous run, his first run in a handicap, and this was a step forward from that. Out of a mare who won over two miles and five furlongs, he remains unexposed at staying trips and he handles soft ground well, and he will be of interest in another staying handicap now, another Class 2 contest, even off a handicap rating of 125, 6lb higher than the mark off which he raced on Sunday.

Plumpton, 7^th January 2024