16th November 2011

BOB BUCKLER RACING: Digger gives rivals jumping lesson

AN AMAZING display of jumping was how Bob Buckler described Double Dizzy’s performance at Cheltenham on Friday.

The 10-year-old, although beaten into third place after turning for home in the lead, produced an exhilarating round of jumping in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase over all but four miles that had jockey Andrew Glassonbury declaring “I’ve never ridden a horse that has jumped so perfectly all the way round. He was brilliant.”

The cross country course run on the inside of the normal Cheltenham course combines a mixture of 32 different types of obstacles from timber poles to ditches and banks and a replica of the Canal Turn fence at Aintree, and is a good test of a horses ability to jump different types of fences.

Glassonbury had Digger, as he is affectionately called at home, always up near the front, and after jumping the third last took a two length lead.

Eventual winner Uncle Junior and odds-on favourite Garde Champetre, who has won five times in his 11 races over this course, joined him in a row as they jumped the last, and they finally got the better of Buckler’s horse as they ran up the hill to the finish.

A delighted Buckler said: “What an amazing display of jumping! He didn’t put a foot wrong and made ground over his rivals at every fence.

“So good was his jumping that I had people who I have never met coming up to me over the Friday and Saturday at the course congratulating me and saying what a superb display of jumping it was.

A little disappointed that he was beaten on the run in, Buckler added:” He was beaten by two good horses, but I’ve noticed before at Cheltenham that sometimes coming up the hill at the finish he gets distracted; I don’t know if it is the noise of the crowd.

“He may well go over the cross country course at Cheltenham in December and next March, and end his season at Punchestown in April.

“He is rated at 110 and was racing against Garde Champetre with a rating of 156, and only getting 6lb in that race, so a handicap race will give him a better chance.

“In the meantime he will go back to hunting as he doesn’t like normal training methods and gets fed up, and I might try him in a 3¼ mile race at Fontwell which has plenty of sharp turns.”

There was disappointment however on Sunday when Sulpius was pulled up in the Ocasan - Not All Heroes Wear Capes Novices' Handicap Hurdle at Fontwell in which Buckler was expecting him to go close.

“I can’t understand it; he ran an appalling race and there appears no real reason for it. I was expecting him to go close but he was beaten a long way from home.

“Admittedly the ground was horrible and only four of the ten finished, and maybe he doesn’t act on real heavy ground.

“There’s nothing obvious as to why and we will run some blood test to check him out.”

Malin Head had his first run for more than 18 months in the racinglottery.co.uk Novices' Hurdle (Division 2) at Exeter and finished a disappointing ninth.

“He needed a run, but I didn’t realise he needed that much,” said Buckler. “Having not run for so long he is obviously quite fat inside, as happens with any human or animal that hasn’t exercised properly for so long. He jumped and trevelled well and the run will do him good, but we now need to work on him more.”

Johns Gift on the same card was also disappointing in the Standish Family Anniversary Handicap Chase where Buckler expected him to go quite close. As it was he made a couple of blunders, one very bad one which almost pitched jockey Andrew Thornton off and knocked the stuffing out of the horse.

“He is usually a brilliant jumper, but he does have a tendency to look around and sometimes misses a fence out, so we might well experiment with blinkers or cheek pieces to keep him concentrated.”

There is good news about Baron Sutton who it was thought might have strained a tendon on his debut at Wincanton recently that suggested he may be out for the season.

Buckler reported that in fact there is no damage to the tendon, but he does have some superficial fluid around the joint which should only sideline him for a couple of weeks.

BOB BUCKLER RACING: Digger gives rivals jumping lesson

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