Market Rasen abandoned after four races

Laura Morgan was quick to emphasise the high regard she holds Glen Cannel in after hailing him the "real deal" following his victory in the Pertemps Network ‘National Hunt’ Maiden Hurdle on a rain-curtailed card at Market Rasen today.

The Waltham-on-the-Wolds handler is steadily building a smart team around her, of which she expects the Tim Radford-owned four year old to be a big part of in the future after running out a ready winner of today’s extended two and a half-mile contest.

After finishing third in a bumper on his first racecourse appearance at Worcester 66 days ago the Tim Radford-owned 6/1 chance made a winning debut over hurdles under champion jockey Brian Hughes when proving two and a half lengths too strong for Jacks Touch.

Morgan said: “I just thought there was no point in wasting time in bumpers as he is a three-mile chaser in time.

“Brian absolutely loved him but we will be mindful as he is only four. He said he wants a couple more runs and that will be him for the season. He is big and weak and takes a lot of organising. We won’t be in any rush to get him out again.

“We are very local to Tim and a lot of his babies come to us. He has got two in full training at the moment but there is another two at home that will come back having done little bits.

“He is a big supporter of the yard which is fantastic and being as small as I am you need decent people like Tim.

“I think he is the real deal. He could probably one of the smartest I’ve got for the future. It is very exciting.”

Having seen his silks carried to Grade One glory by the likes of Somersby in years gone by winning owner Radford is enjoying taking a new direction in the sport which has seen him streamline his horses in training and focus on the breeding sector of the industry.

Radford said: “I’ve got two with Laura and two with Ben Pauling in training. We have had a little bit of a change of emphasis as we are now producing young stock for the industry and we have got 40 odd horses at home.

“I’m loving learning about a different aspect of the sport. It comes with its trials and tribulations. We are breeding and pin hooking and buying foals from Ireland.

“It suits my advancing years of life. It is lovely and hopefully some of our young stock will come through and make their mark in time and we will build a bit of a reputation.”

Trainer Andy Crook finally got off the mark for the campaign after Lady Babs (15/8 favourite) secured her third victory at the Lincolnshire venue when coming home the facile 12-length winner of the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle.

Crook, who was celebrating his first winner in 231 days said: “That’s our first winner of the season. We only have 15 horses in training but that suits us.

“In the early days we were running over two miles three and four as we thought she would stay like her mother and back then we thought it was the ground that was the issue but it turns out we were running her over the wrong trip.

“Over the past two seasons we have dropped back to trips of around two miles and this two mile one is about as far as she gets. I think she might have bumped into one at Sedgefield last time out but she has been very consistent.”

Racing was abandoned following a second course inspection staged after the fourth race due the large amount of rainfall that left parts of the track inaccessible to emergency services.

The track had originally passed an inspection on the chase course ahead of the Pertemps Network Handicap Chase, which was won by the Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero-trained Heritier (11/10 favourite) before a decision was made to call off the remainder of the card

Jack Pryor, Clerk of the Course at Market Rasen, said: “We have now had two inspections here this afternoon. During the first inspection, the jockeys and trainers were keen to proceed and they felt that the track was still safe but subsequent to that we have had further rain.

“Since 11pm yesterday evening we have had 35 millimetres of rain and it is still continuing to rain. That for me called extra concerns around access for emergency vehicles that we rely heavily on during racing.

“Unfortunately, we had to make a decision based on those grounds that it wasn’t safe to continue as we couldn’t provide the necessary access to emergency vehicles.

“The general feeling of the jockeys was that they were going through ground quite well and they were vaguely keen to carry on but they appreciated we had to make the decision on the grounds of the accessibility of the emergency services.

“They are so integral to the sport in that they provide support to everyone participating so to continue without those would be foolish."

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