All The Glory rounds off the festive period with a superb victory on her Coral Racing Club debut
02 Jan 2025
It's been a busy festive period for the Coral Racing Club, with Aspire To Glory, Diamond Days and All The Glory all competing in the space of a week after Christmas.
The first of our three runners was Aspire To Glory, who went racing at Wolverhampton on Boxing Day. He had been dropped one pound by the handicapper going into the race, following his eighth place finish at Chelmsford a week earlier.
He was stepping back down to 7f on Boxing Day, having run over a mile at Chelmsford, so given that slightly shorter trip, and being drawn wide in stall 11 of 12, meant that he would need to break in strong style in order to compete for a better position in the early stages of the race. However, despite his start not being particularly poor, Kieran O'Neill was forced to drop him in behind to avoid being caught four wide, with the opening bend at Wolverhampton coming so quickly after the start of the race.
He continued to race between 9th and 10th position for the entirety of the race, and ultimately couldn't produce a run towards the finish to improve his position. It was an improvement on his prior performance, having finished well in touch with the second cluster of horses, and less than five lengths behind the winner in 9th position. His handicap has been dropped by a further two pounds following the race, and he will run off a mark of 43 when we next see him on the course.
WATCH: Kieran O'Neill reviews Aspire To Glory's performance at Wolverhampton
Our second festive runner came a day later, at the Coral Welsh Grand National Meeting at Chepstow, where the heavy fog that covered the UK threatened the card taking place. Thankfully it wasn't bad enough to abandon the card, and Diamond Days was able to run in the opening race of the day at the South Wales track.
Although the fog wasn't thick enough to have the card cancelled, it certainly had a negative effect on the viewing spectacle of the day, as the visibility of most of the track was poor at best and impossible in places. What we did see from Diamond Days was positive though, and he jumped his way round in good fashion to finish in fifth position, only narrowly missing out on fourth.
He'll receive his handicap mark following his next run, which shouldn't be too far away.
WATCH: Chris Wald provides update on Diamond Days following his Chepstow run
Trainer, Joe Tizzard gave us this update on the likely next steps for Diamond Days:
Because of the fog at Chepstow, we didn’t get to see a lot of Diamond Days in action in his last race, but he took a massive step forward from Fontwell obviously, and Brendan [Powell] was very happy with the way he jumped and travelled, with the pair finishing fifth.
He didn’t have a particularly hard race as the going wasn’t as testing as it can be at Chepstow at this time of year, but he certainly knew he’d had a race, so we’ll give him two to three weeks to fully get over it, and then look to find him his next race. He’s progressing all the time at home, and the more he races, the better he’ll learn to settle, as Brendan did say there were a couple of times when the horse looked to wander off a straight line, but I don’t think this was anything more than greenness.
After his next run he’ll get his handicap mark, and then I think we can have some fun with him, Chepstow was much more promising in terms of what he shows us at home, so I’m sure there’s plenty to look forward to.
Finally, we saw All The Glory make her Coral Racing Club debut on New Year's Day, in a valuable Southwell contest worth over £20,000 in total prize money. The original plan for All the Glory, was to send her to Newbury on Coral Challow Hurdle day, however, Jonjo and A J O'Neill decided that the race at Southwell was a more suitable target and rerouted our newest recruit to the Midlands track.
We had hoped the rain would stay away, as her form on soft ground prior to this race wasn't nearly as good as her previous runs on quicker surfaces. However, she put those thoughts to bed with a scintillating performance resulting in a comfortable victory marking a dream debut for our mare.
All The Glory's Owners for the Day collecting the winners' trophy at Southwell
All The Glory put in a near faultless performance over the two and a half mile trip, as Ben Macey held her together at the rear of the field throughout the contest, before delivering her for a perfectly timed run on the turn for home. When asked the question, All The Glory swept around the far outside of the field and took the lead comfortably, before taking the last two flights in great style and kicking on to the line to record a brilliant four length victory.
WATCH: Ben Macey reflects on All The Glory's dream debut for the Coral Racing Club
A J O'Neill spoke to us the morning after the race and gave us this update on All The Glory:
All The Glory has trotted up sound this morning after her very impressive win at Southwell yesterday.
It was a great way to start her career with Coral and a fantastic start to the New Year!
Well done everyone!
Keep an eye on the Coral Racing Club to find out the next destinations for all three horses following their festive fixtures!
The first of our three runners was Aspire To Glory, who went racing at Wolverhampton on Boxing Day. He had been dropped one pound by the handicapper going into the race, following his eighth place finish at Chelmsford a week earlier.
He was stepping back down to 7f on Boxing Day, having run over a mile at Chelmsford, so given that slightly shorter trip, and being drawn wide in stall 11 of 12, meant that he would need to break in strong style in order to compete for a better position in the early stages of the race. However, despite his start not being particularly poor, Kieran O'Neill was forced to drop him in behind to avoid being caught four wide, with the opening bend at Wolverhampton coming so quickly after the start of the race.
He continued to race between 9th and 10th position for the entirety of the race, and ultimately couldn't produce a run towards the finish to improve his position. It was an improvement on his prior performance, having finished well in touch with the second cluster of horses, and less than five lengths behind the winner in 9th position. His handicap has been dropped by a further two pounds following the race, and he will run off a mark of 43 when we next see him on the course.
WATCH: Kieran O'Neill reviews Aspire To Glory's performance at Wolverhampton
Although the fog wasn't thick enough to have the card cancelled, it certainly had a negative effect on the viewing spectacle of the day, as the visibility of most of the track was poor at best and impossible in places. What we did see from Diamond Days was positive though, and he jumped his way round in good fashion to finish in fifth position, only narrowly missing out on fourth.
He'll receive his handicap mark following his next run, which shouldn't be too far away.
WATCH: Chris Wald provides update on Diamond Days following his Chepstow run
Because of the fog at Chepstow, we didn’t get to see a lot of Diamond Days in action in his last race, but he took a massive step forward from Fontwell obviously, and Brendan [Powell] was very happy with the way he jumped and travelled, with the pair finishing fifth.
He didn’t have a particularly hard race as the going wasn’t as testing as it can be at Chepstow at this time of year, but he certainly knew he’d had a race, so we’ll give him two to three weeks to fully get over it, and then look to find him his next race. He’s progressing all the time at home, and the more he races, the better he’ll learn to settle, as Brendan did say there were a couple of times when the horse looked to wander off a straight line, but I don’t think this was anything more than greenness.
After his next run he’ll get his handicap mark, and then I think we can have some fun with him, Chepstow was much more promising in terms of what he shows us at home, so I’m sure there’s plenty to look forward to.
Finally, we saw All The Glory make her Coral Racing Club debut on New Year's Day, in a valuable Southwell contest worth over £20,000 in total prize money. The original plan for All the Glory, was to send her to Newbury on Coral Challow Hurdle day, however, Jonjo and A J O'Neill decided that the race at Southwell was a more suitable target and rerouted our newest recruit to the Midlands track.
We had hoped the rain would stay away, as her form on soft ground prior to this race wasn't nearly as good as her previous runs on quicker surfaces. However, she put those thoughts to bed with a scintillating performance resulting in a comfortable victory marking a dream debut for our mare.
All The Glory's Owners for the Day collecting the winners' trophy at Southwell
All The Glory put in a near faultless performance over the two and a half mile trip, as Ben Macey held her together at the rear of the field throughout the contest, before delivering her for a perfectly timed run on the turn for home. When asked the question, All The Glory swept around the far outside of the field and took the lead comfortably, before taking the last two flights in great style and kicking on to the line to record a brilliant four length victory.
WATCH: Ben Macey reflects on All The Glory's dream debut for the Coral Racing Club
All The Glory has trotted up sound this morning after her very impressive win at Southwell yesterday.
It was a great way to start her career with Coral and a fantastic start to the New Year!
Well done everyone!
Keep an eye on the Coral Racing Club to find out the next destinations for all three horses following their festive fixtures!
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