Tuscan Gold makes promising hurdle debut

Tuscan Gold schooling at Alan King's. Photo by GJ Multimedia

Tuscan Gold finished fourth on his first race over hurdles at Huntingdon, having graduated from the flat where he was twice a winner for Sir Mark Prescott. Recently purchased at the Autumn Horses in Training sale in October and sent to Alan King’ yard where he had been schooling impeccably at the trainers’  faith in the horse proved justified today.

Sent off the 4/1 third favourite in the hotly contested 16 runner Betfred 1350 Shops Nationwide Novice Hurdle, jockey Robert Thornton settled the four-year-old in mid division. Bar a few novicey jumps early on, Tuscan Gold jumped fluently throughout scraping the paint on the inside rail.

He looked to be cruising down the back straight and rounding the final turn, he was asked to make a forward move to join the leaders. Up the straight, he stayed on one-paced on the rain-sodden ground but jumped well given that he was rather leg-weary, passing the post a seven and three-quarter length fourth to the favourite Hit The Headlines.

Both Robert and Alan were delighted with the horse after the race and given the high cruising speed he showed during the race today, he could be dropped back to two miles on his next outing.