One of the easiest questions asked of racing folk is ‘Are you for Lieutenant Henderson???’. ‘Why yes’, everyone responds enthuasitically, ‘I’ll follow him for eternity. He is our sports shining star. In him we trust.’ However, will that be the rejoinder tomorrow re the bumper at Huntingdon – the lucky last (4.55). Even The Lieutenant’s most earnest of devotees must be having their doubts.
Since the commencement of 2016 the forum’s favourite trainer has had 19 runners in Huntingdon bumpers and just one, I say one, has been victorious. Furthermore of the losers 9 went off favourite and 7 were 15/8 or lower in the market. A rare blip on his record those stats.
Tomorrow in the Huntingdon bumper the great man saddles the unraced 4YO Pipesmoker (is this a lovely name for a gelding??? I guess that’s a debate for another day). He wasn’t a comparatively costly purchase as the old boy went for €20,000 in ’16. ‘Sporting Life’ currently have this son of Authorized favourite.
It will be fascinating to see if The Lieutenant can break this hoodoo re his Huntingdon bumper runners. I won’t be punting either way but thought I’d flag up a run of results that The Lieutenant certainly wouldn’t get a medal for!
Will Pipesmoker win or lose of the morrow??? What do we think, team?!?