News
Monday September 21 2026
Gordons at the double to launch Ladies Day
The Plumpton season started with our colourful Mansell McTaggart Ladies Day as late summer fashion sense combined with gleaming thoroughbreds for a potent mix. Our all hurdle card attracted a select 35 runners, less than we might have hoped, but no huge surprise as our rain-starved countryside combats the drought. All credit to our hard-working groundstaff for producing safe conditions and a healthy sward.
Highlights of our seven race card included a winner for Adam Wedge after 11 months out of the saddle through injury, and a double for trainer-rider combo Chris and Freddie Gordon.
Wedge returned to the saddle recently after a layoff since October 2025, illustrating the precarious employment nature of a jump jockey, the only profession where an ambulance follows your every event. Eight rides in, it was Glamorgan - based Catherine Williams who got him back to the winner's berth, courtesy of Getarose in the opening Dominic Hill Accountants & Thorne Civil Engineers' Mares handicap.
Always handy and tracking leader Galeforceecho, Wedge asserted turning in, lad up the straight, and put the issue beyond doubt after the last, finishing 4l to the good.
Trainer Catherine Williams hails from Llancarfan in Glamorgan, now an area as well known for jump racing as for cricket. Glamorgan will finish mid-table in the Rothesay County Championship, and meet Essex at Sophia Gardens later in the week to wrap up their season.
It's a 400 mile round trip door to door from Llancarfan, and Williams can consider herself unlucky not to have scored again from her two runners, when Pooroldmackley had to give second best to Jefe Triunfo, who batted away the Welsh challenge in the Mansell McTaggart Mane Event Handicap over an extended 3m.
All in all, a good day for Wales.
Gordon at the double
Jefe Triunfo was one of two winners for trainer-rider combo Chris and Freddie Gordon.
Gordon snr is our most regular visitor, and enjoyed his best ever season last term with 45 winners overall, running more horses at Plumpton than any other course. With nine winners, only his Fontwell tally exceeded his East Sussex success.
Jefe Triunfo parted company with his rider on his last visit here in November, but the memory hasn't lingered clearly, and whilst his hurdling wasn't foot-perfect in a slow-run race, he went to the front readily enough three out, and kept on well.
Four year old Khalk'eau Spigao has takena little time for the penny to drop, but showed he was getting the hang of hurdling when running a 9 1/4l third at Fontwell at the end of August. Leading from the off, Gordon Jnr had time enough to sight him at his hurdles, and he finished with gusto, 1 1/4l ahead of odds-on favourite Farhh Echo.
This was a welcome return to the Weighing room for Freddie, whose source of rides over the summer has been minimal. Last season was a breakthrough year for him with 43 winners, but this was only his third ride of the summer so far, greeted with delight by his father.
Divine intervention by Eternal Angel
Tom Lacey is another who wouldn't typically be at his busiest in mid-summer. However, Eternal Angel provided some small momentum to a yard that is a player nowadays at Saturday meetings, when winning the Remembering Norman Sharpe Handicap Hurdle over the minimum trip.
The Gordon-trained Nap Hand led for much of the way, before Stan Sheppard sent Eternal Angle on two out, the fast-finisnhing Gower Prince and Mojito des Mottes in pursuit for Gloucestershire pair jonjo & AJ O'Neill and Ben Pauling. One thing we can guarantee is that these three will be head to head many more times over the coming months.
1 1/2l was the margin at the line for yet another French-bred. As Donald Sutherland remarked in that famous Frederick Forsyth film, The Eagle Has Landed, "We're being invaded!"
One Dimensional a horse to follow
It was a day for horses to embellish their nascent reputations, rather than longstanding handicappers returning to the fray once more. Two maiden hurdles marked the middle of the card, sadly neither producing a field large enough to create a demanding test.
In the first, the Henners Gallop to Grapeness Maiden over the minimum trip, Jonathan Burke had no trouble in landing the prohibitive 2/7 odds on Arcturus Flame, a 17l winner over his two rivals for James Owen's huge and highly successful Newmarket outfit.
In the second, One Dimensional showed he'd learnt from his previous experience, running down the field in the Goffs-sponsored Nickel Coin listed Bumper on Grand National day at Aintree. Running keen, he bore down on the leader and even money favourite, Premier Fantasy, two out under David Bass, and despite hanging left approaching the final flight, had 5 1/2l in hand at the close.
Trainer Max Comley is now based at Milton Harris' old yard at Sutton Veney, near Warminster, and thinks a great deal of his Frontiersman mare. Expect to see more of both.
Bumper success for Bowens
No card would be complete nowadays without a bumper, but it has to be asked if we now have a surfeit as young horses don't learn a great deal about the hustle and bustle of racing in small fields.
Comley might reasonab;y have assumed a double was on the cards with a prominent showing from Kap In Hand, but he was no match for pillar to post winner Shane's Spirit for Bowens Mickey and James, 3 1/4l winners.
A good afternoon for Wales I'd say.
