WHAT a brilliant day it was at Kelso last Sunday, when Rachael McDonald landed the Persimmon Homes Scottish Borders National on Harry The Viking to give Sandy Thomson a third successive win in the race.
It was three wins on the bounce too for Edinburgh owner Jim Beaumont, whose ill-fated Neptune Equester scored in 2014 and 2015, and he is also the man that co-owned 2013 Grand National hero Auroras Encore.
Sandy’s dad, David, was chairman at Kelso for many years so he loves to have winners at the venue, which is only a few miles from his Berwickshire base.
But it was an afternoon that will live long in Rachael’s memory and the cheers the 25-year-old received as she arrived in the winners’ enclosure could be heard all the way back to her home town of Selkirk.
NICK Alexander won’t forget his day at Ayr on Monday in a hurry. The Kinneston trainer saddled 10 runners and went home with his first treble under Rules that was completed by a 1-2-3 in the final leg.
Unfortunately, daughter Lucy is still sidelined, but hopefully the stable will remain in red-hot form when the former champion conditional manages to get back into the saddle.
A huge pat on the back goes to racing manager Emma Marley and her team as the meeting wouldn’t have survived without the frost blankets that covered the entire course. I hear the initiative cost about £5000, but it was money well spent.
WITH the unseasonably mild weather there shouldn’t be any problems at Musselburgh on Wednesday, when the feature race is the £20,000 Racing UK Anywhere Introductory Juvenile Hurdle.
A decent bunch of entries include Keith Dalgleish’s course and distance winner Cape Of Glory and Charlie Longsdon-trained Forth Bridge, owned and bred by The Queen.
I WAS sorry to hear of the death of James Adam, a former trainer and owner who passed away recently.
James loved a punt and landed some nice touches with horses such as Monnaie Forte, who, along with Bold Classic, reportedly netted him a cool £160,000 when the pair scooped a memorable double at Sandown in 1998. Quite a gamble even by today’s standards.
He was a larger-than-life character and racing in Scotland will be all the poorer with his passing at the age of 71.
Don’t forget to check out our Twitter feed (@ScottishRacing) and scottishracing.co.uk for all the latest news.
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