Father John wins on debut for Nicky Henderson and completes a wonderful week of results.

Mon 24 Jun 2019

FATHER JOHN, our 4 year old son of Secret Singer made his debut yesterday at Hexham in the 2 mile Bumper. It was lovely to see him for the first time in his 'racing attire' - he looked superb in the parade ring and really took the eye with his size!

He took a keen hold early in the race, with Nico keeping him prominent, although his inexperience showed in running, as he needed to be niggled along briefly. He responded to his rider's urgings and showed a hugely willing attitude, especially 3 furlongs out as Nico got to work, but he rallied nicely to take the lead over 1f out, staying on well in the final furlong, with his ears pricked on the line.

Nico was very happy with him and the feel he gave him, he confirmed what we saw though, he is a big baby and will have learnt more doing it that way than he will have done having an easier time of things. Nicky was also delighted that he got off the mark at the first time of asking.

Congratulations to his owners on the perfect start and it was great to see so many of his syndicate there celebrating the win. In fact, for some he is their first horse with us, so a very good start!

A very successful 7 days for #TeamMPR, with 6 winners and 7 second places from 26 runners, taking us to 35 winners this year.

We have two recent new recruits to our Jumps Team: Get The Appeal with Paul Nicholls and Imperial Knight with Ben Pauling. Shares are now available and they can be viewed here - National Hunt Shares.