Tom David is assistant trainer to Ben Pauling whose yard has enjoyed a nice start to the season as the yard has registered 2 winners and 11 placements in 27 races in the last 14 days, one of the highlights has been Mole court who won at Cheltenham in the October meeting in the Close Brothers Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Chase.
“Yeah look, he’s progressed very nicely through the summer. He got a nice handicap mark to start off with and you know obviously confidence was a big thing with him once he got his head in front, he seemed to thrive off it and he kept improving through the summer.”
Following Mole Courts impressive win at Cheltenham, Personal Ambition brought home a somewhat shock win at Warwick the other day as he rode off Jingko Blue: “He won nicely against a smart Henderson horse I thought in that race, and he won, and he won going away really at the line. Yeah, we’ve always liked him and bought him from Ireland. He came over basically he was put to us by Barry Geraghty. He finished in his point of point but there was talk that he made a noise so obviously we bought him with that in mind and gave him a wind-op straight away and ever since he’s had the wind-op his wind’s been perfect.
“He’s high up on the list of our novice hurdlers that he duly obliged and yeah, he’s a lovely horse going forward.
David was asked about some potential stable stars within the yard as Harpers Brook has been entered to Cheltenham for the Paddy power gold cup “Yeah Harper’s looks good. He goes to Cheltenham next weekend for the Paddy Power Gold Cup. He’s been working great, seems in good nick. It’s a big race to start off in but he could be on the right side of the handicap if he doesn’t pull himself up in front too soon.
One of the standout performances from the yard so far in this early part of the season who I thought ran very well at Cheltenham last week was Twig: “ Yeah Twig ran a cracker was given a very good ride by Bo actually. He’s a seven-pound claimer but he didn’t ride him like one. He’s very patient. The ground was probably just on the slow side for him. He does like real top of the ground, so it was going to be against us slightly, but you know even so he ran a cracker, and he produced him at the right time.
And finally just it was announced recently Luca Morgan is retiring from the Saddle. Do you want to just say a quick word on him and how helpful he’s been to the yard?
“ Yeah look very sad for Luca. His weight has just been an issue for a good few months now. It’s caught up with him and he’s been a massive asset to the yard. He won the Conditional Jockeys title last season. We give him plenty of winners and he performed on our horses every time. He’ll be a big loss to the yard if we do lose him riding out. In every aspect of anything to do with us he’s been a massive asset. So yeah we’re going to be gutted to lose him really”.
