Getaround grabs Newcastle honours for Ella Pickard

Trainer delighted to take novice prize.

Ella Pickard registered the biggest winner of her career to date when Getaround made all the running in the Newcastle Flooring “The French Furze” Novices’ Hurdle at Gosforth Park.

Having finished fourth in the Persian War at Chepstow behind McFabulous on his penultimate run, Getaround found himself able to dominate here.

Favourite Ask A Honey Bee made a late bid for glory, but Bryan Carver had just enough up his sleeve to hold on by a head on the 10-1 chance.

“We always thought he wanted better ground,” said Pickard.

“It was a really good ride from Bryan, who has ridden him all the way through.

“We’ll look to step back up class again now, this was one of the last chances for him to run as a novice, so it was important to get more experience into him.

“It took seven hours to get here, but you’ve got to go where the races are.

“We’ve got about 15 horses in, but this would be the biggest winner.”

James Ewart’s Ascot De Bruyere notched up a fourth win at Gosforth Park with a pillar-to-post success in the D J Jeffreys Racing Handicap Chase.

Running for the first time since a wind operation, champion jockey Brian Hughes got him jumping elaborately out in front and he never looked like being caught.

Ewart said: “He’s a lovely horse and everyone knows he’s a Newcastle specialist and that’s his fourth win here now.

“His best performance was actually over two and a half miles, so I said to Brian to make sure he made plenty of use of him today as I was actually worried the ground might be too good.

“Last year he had lots of little issues and it was the first season we’ve had him we didn’t win a race with him.”

Alan King tends to find a smart juvenile or two each year and Son Of Red made a winning transition from the Flat in the opening Alnorthumbria Veterinary Group Introductory Juvenile Hurdle.

Rated 66 on the Flat, he needed every yard of the trip to reel in the front-running State Crown, who had the benefit of experience.

Winning rider Daryl Jacob said: “That was a nice performance, he ground it out for me. He’s a lovely jumper, as you get from Alan King, and I was very impressed. That was his first run over hurdles and, please god, he’ll keep improving.”

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Ella Pickard Getaround

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