Matt Brocklebank catches up with one of the in-form trainers in the country right now - dual-purpose handler Tristan Davidson, who is eyeing a big April prize with his stable star.
March has been a superb month for some of the biggest and best training operations. See John & Thady Gosden and the all-conquering Aidan O’Brien, whose strike-rates during this month read 4-11 and 6-9 respectively.
Few can come close to matching that sort of form, other than relative minnow Tristan Davidson (5-12), the dual-purpose trainer with little more than a dozen horses currently housed at his Irthington yard, just a stone’s throw from Carlisle Lake District Airport.
The ambitious Davidson is flying right now, a fantastic run of form which has included back-to-back wins for Style It Out and Gran Paradiso, plus an impressive novice chase success for Bootlegger, a horse picked up from Neil Mulholland.
“It’s been a good month. They’re happy horses at the moment,” said the trainer.
“We had a really bad spell of weather with frost and snow and all we could do was lob away with them, no fast work. But that’s actually done them good, easing off for a bit before building up again, and lately with the nicer weather we’ve not missed a beat.
“They’re loving their work and having a pick of grass in the sun.”
The weather could play a key role in big-race plans for Davidson next month, too, although he’s hoping for some significant spring showers ahead of The Dutchman’s bid for glory in the Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr, the kind of race that could act as a major springboard for the unassuming Cumbrian.
He said: “It’d be a big deal for us (if The Dutchman went close) – you’re just trying to improve yourself the whole time.
“I’ve only got 15 horses in training at the minute and I don’t mind having that kind of number as it means we can do a good job of it. If you get many more then you need more staff and more everything, but this way we can give them plenty of one-to-one and it seems to be working.
“The Dutchman is alright, he was going well in the Eider (unseated rider) and he’s just been a bit unlucky having fallen the time before too.
“He’s entered for the Scottish National and that’s the plan hopefully, providing it doesn’t get too dry. We need a bit of rain and a bit of luck.
“Harry Reed is going to ride him, so we’ll get the horse schooled, freshened up and get him right for Ayr. He’s worn cheekpieces in the past but I don’t think he needs them now.”
The 143-rated The Dutchman stands out when it comes to Davidson’s small string but he’s keen to stress there are others coming through for whom hopes are pretty high.
“I’ve got some nice horses for the summer,” he said.
“I think a lot of Ask Paddington (in the same ownership as The Dutchman). He wants good ground and I hope we’ll have a lot of fun with him. He won at Sedgefield and probably should have won when second at Hexham as he made a mistake at the last. Two and a half miles is his trip and I’d like to go novice chasing with him at some point too.
“We’ve got Big Time Dancer, who won the Lanzarote in 2019, he’s good. He was with Jennie Candlish and he’s not been easy to train. I was struggling to get to the bottom of him and he’s been a bit of a struggle but I think I have now. He could run on the Flat or over hurdles.
“Bootlegger is another who wants good ground, we’ve got him entered again at Market Rasen on Sunday in another novices’ handicap, and there’s a race at Newcastle I’ve got in mind too.
“For the Flat I’ve only really got Greengage (runs 5.20 Wolverhampton), Pearl Of Qatar – who now has to go and do a stalls test after rearing up the other day – and Tomorrow’s Angel, that’s about it really, but I’m hoping to be busy with the summer jumpers.”
If March is anything to go by, 2021 could see things really take off for a small training operation entitled to be in far greater demand.
Click here to add horses to our FREE My Stable tracker
Fast Results
Scores
