Julian Sherriff‘s 10-year-old Fier Jaguen continued his Garthorpe Open race dominance on Sunday at the Cottesmore meeting, where he won by 25 lengths in the skilful hands of Bradley Gibbs. The right-hand-track supremo never looked uncomfortable and, although he might have given the Stearn and Turner families and inkling of hope when he gave their 9-year-old Our Jet the lead on a couple of occasions, there was clearly too much class in the French-bred 's tank and he won by a distance. Our Jet's performance in second was very encouraging for a horse making his debut between the flags, surely a good indicator for his next run.

Garthorpe seems to be very resilient to wet weather and as this meeting began, the general impression was that apart from some soft patches this was a very good surface. Good to soft soft in places.

Racing began with the Witham Hall Conditions race over 3 1/2 miles which attracted some good stayers. The lead changed several times over the course of the race with Mountain Assault (ridden and trained by Dale Peters) and Morning Spirit (trained by Kelly Morgan and ridden by Tom Chatfeild Roberts) making the pace, but against the run of form, it was 20/1-shot Mylestown Upper who hit the lead approaching the last and stayed on well to win, from Mountain Assault in second and Nick Wright's Red Maple in third. The latter took home the coveted Perpetual Hound Trophy as the first Cottesmore-qualified horse past the post.

The bookmakers were also happy after our second race, the Tudor Hall School for Girls 2m4f Ladies Conditions race. As predicted in the preview, Loughan, trained and ridden by Gina Andrews, and Shentri, trained by Kelly Morgan and ridden by Ellie Callwood, started as joint short-priced favourites. Gina Andrews amd Shentri ran with purpose, leading until the downhill fence before the final turn where the Edward Turner-trained Janika took over the lead and never relinquished it. Shentri finished second and Loughan in third. This was a popular first win from nine starts for the French-bred 12-year-old, as the Turner family have huge supporters of Garthorpe over the years but have often come up against very good opposition. "We are thrilled," Edward Turner said, "the drop back to two and half miles really helped, as did getting some weight from Shentri and Janika. He's Ben's favourite!"

There was a return to form in the third race, the Jockey Club Conditions Race for Grass Roots Riders, as evens favourite Salty Boy won this from Ouro Branco in second, the only other of four starters to finish. This was jockey Tom Hutsby's sixth win of the season, this time for Father Fred.

The Dickinson & Morris Restricted race, after the Mixed Open, was well supported and led to a first victory of the day for Dale Peters on Largy Pearl, which he trains and rides for Beryl Close. Second in this one, three lengths behind, went to 5/2 joint-favourite Always Groovin, the mount of Gina Andrews, while Alex Chadwick and Can Daddy Dance were some way bnack in third for Nigel Padfield.

The final point-to-point race of the day was a 2-mile 4-furlong Maiden sponsored by Renovation Underwriting Ltd, won in fine form by the Stuart Morris-trained Havock. Second was James Henderson's Pax (Dale Peters), a six-year-old making his racecourse debut who will benefit a lot from this run and should be one to watch. Hot favourite Low Kick (Jack Teal) couldn't find any more in the run-in. despite giving the others 21lbs. Stuart Morris said, "[Havock] is so easy to train. I’m looking forward to good things. This was a horse that was considered a bit tripless at the Skelton‘s yard." He will now have to step up to restricted company.

At the end of the day we had two well supported schooling races which were very professionally ridden and supported by a number of good yards.

During the treading in session on Monday it was notable how well the Garthorpe track had stood up to an eight-race day. It was harrowed then rolled and everything will now be moved onto fresh ground for the Belvoir meeting at the end of March. 

Midlands attention now turns to Guilsborough in Northamptonshire (details) on Sunday 9th March, where the advance going is described as soft all round. We look forward to seeing you there. Please keep an eye on our website and the fixture's socials for more information for this fixture. The tickets are available online on our website at the discounted price of £13.