Ericht

Ericht was really impressive in wining what looked beforehand like a really good bumper at Newbury last Friday. He was settled in rear, just ahead of the back marker Bygones In Brid early on. Peckhamecho took over as they went down the side of the course, but Barry Geraghty found a good seam through runners at the top of the home straight and Ericht came there smoothly having made his ground easily, picked up nicely and stayed on all the way to the line. The right horses chased him home, with Bygones In Brid finishing second, briefly looking like a big threat when he came there on the outside having followed Ericht through the same gap, but Ericht soon put the race to bed over a furlong out, and Peckhamecho third, both winners of their only previous starts, with the field well strung out courtesy of the strong pace throughout. As such, the first and second may have benefited from racing off the pace early on, but they were by far the best two horses on the day and in all likelihood will prove to be the best two horses in the long term too.

This is usually a strong bumper, it has been won in the last 10 years by Al Ferof, Mad Max (with The Nightingale second), Cornish Rebel and Iris’s Gift, and De Soto was third in 2005 before going on to get beaten a neck by Missed That in the Cheltenham Bumper. Ericht could be a big player at Cheltenham now in a race in which the British horses are getting stronger.

18th February 2011

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