Big Boy Bobby chases his just reward in the Swinton Hurdle at Haydock on Saturday
May 9
This has been a good week for Barbury, with three winners this week, and there are high hopes that we could enjoy another Saturday celebration, with three runners at Haydock and one at Ascot.
We are doubly-represented in the valuable Swinton Handicap Hurdle, with stable jockey Tom Cannon riding Big Boy Bobby and Gavin Sheehan on Helnwein.
Big Boy Bobby looked good when winning at Huntingdon in December 2022, but Lady Luck has not been on his side since. He missed all of last season but has run three solid races this winter, and maybe bumped into a well-handicapped and improving four-year-old when runner-up at Newcastle’s Eider Chase meeting in February.
He has since finished a close third in a competitive handicap hurdle at Cheltenham last month, and Alan, who has been pleased how his jumping has improved, quite rightly suggested that there would be no more deserving winner.
Tom Bellamy rode Helnwein when he ran well in a big handicap hurdle at Aintree and recommended Alan drop him back to two miles. He looks much happier back over the smaller obstacles and started odds-on when reverting to that trip at Chepstow, but he found one too good in Glory And Fortune, who sprang a surprise when winning the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury three years ago.
Harbour Lake, who broke a blood vessel in the Pertemps Final at the Cheltenham Festival, bounced back to form when runner-up to Long Draw on the same track last month.
He will be 11lb higher for the Pertemps Long Distance Handicap Hurdle than when he finished third in the race 12 months ago, but we can’t complain about that as he won a qualifier of that series in good style at Aintree last November. He ought to again be competitive.
Our other Saturday runner is Wispa on the Flat at Ascot. This is her first outing for us, but she was a useful performer for Marcus Tregoning, winning five races, so it will be interesting to see how she shapes with Rossa Ryan aboard in the fillies handicap.
