IPO Racing PartnershipALDERBROOK GIRL
8 year old bay filly by Alderbrook, out of Trassey Bridge
IPO Racing Partnership
Follow this link to see Alderbook Girl's career in the Racing Post form database: RACING POST FORM
After her chase debut at a very wet Plumpton in Jan07, Alderbrook Girl demonstrates the incredible self cleaning noseband, coated in a secret blend of Andean vegetable extracts and blessed by the ghost of a long dead Inca priest-laundryman
Mar08: Alderbrook Girl's recent races have seen her fine in the immediate aftermath but become very stiff and uncomfortable a day or two afterwards. It will be interesting to see if it is just the virus that has probably been around since autumn, and how much she will improve now that we have a handle on it.
Apr07: She was ready to run, but with no sign of rain there was an exploratory mission on faster ground at Worcester. Alderbrook Girl did not really handle it, and was pulled up when Charlie Studd felt she was feeling the going badly. Fingers crossed for a drizzly May.
Jan07: Could not handle the battered and holding ground last time at Hereford, but she was certainly not alone in that on the day, and chasing was her next career variant. Starting with a respectable second at Plumpton (the winner was winning his third of the season and delivered again afterwards), she got off the mark in a three miler at Huntingdon next time. Teasing the oppo with some idling in front, she let them get literally within sniffing distance and as soon as she felt hot breath on her rump, Alderbrook Girl put some daylight between them again.
Nov06: She does it! And the hard way as well, making all the running over 3¼ miles at Plumpton. As she is not the sort to be able to fine tune to 100% fitness at home, Adlerbrook Girl's durability on the day, after being forced to make the running, was pleasantly surprising. Pictures from the day can be found on the gallery, linked above.
Oct06: After spending a bit of the summer in her box with a septic foot, she had not fattened up as much as those that had been at grass all summer, but once her work began to step up, Alderbrook Girl has been giving the impression of being a much stronger mare. She should be ready by the end of the month and all being well, this will be the season where she begins to realise her potential.
Apr06: Bounced back to form with a gutsy third at Fontwell when the rains came just in time. This should set her up nicely for chasing next autumn, although she has become a bit of a fuss pot, needing soft ground and shaping as if she prefers to go on a right-handed track. The career record below suggests that running in the last week of a calendar month might be a futility in her case as well.
Mar06: Ran well when fifth at Taunton, when we got the tactics wrong and did not ride an aggressive enough race. On that evidence she is capable of opening her account shortly, but will not handle anything faster than good to soft, so the weather is dictating the agenda.
Jan06: Alderbrook Girl had started to get it together over hurdles when she ran a disappointing race at Plumpton in conditions that ought to have suited. It transpired that she had displaced a pelvis, which the chiropractor has since put right.
Oct05: Her racecourse debut was in the 2004/5 season, and she was a respectable third in a Folkestone bumper, behind two well regarded sorts. On the day she got an ideal introduction to racing, learning what the job is all about without suffering any discouraging stress or inconveniences. Next time, she got much more involved in the battling up front, and failed to see out two and a quarter miles in the mud at Fontwell, but in the conditions, the run was not too disappointing. Alderbrook Girl's third bumper, at Newbury, was a bit a of a let down, but she was struck into and eased down when clearly struggling, and ought to be able to put that well and truly behind her.
When she made her hurdling debut, testing conditions on the back of a few months off found her out, but Alderbrook Girl did what we needed of her, and it should set her up well for the future. Ironically, second time up, Colin Bolger, who rode both times, reported that even good ground was too fast for her, and when match fit she would need a good old slog in the mud.
Alderbrook Girl gets in a good leap on New Year's Day at Plumpton
Weighing in at a strapping 16.2hh, she is by a Champion Hurdler that also won the Prix Dollar (Gr 2) on the flat, plus the Select Stakes (Gr 3), and was placed in the Prix Ganay (Gr 1) and Grosser Preis Wirtschaft (Gr 2) - with Pattern race form in four countries, do Alderbrook's offspring count as asylum seekers? The dam (a half sister to Southern Star, Henrietta Knight's classy staying chaser) won five times hurdling and chasing in Ireland, and was placed in a Gr. 3 chase. The grandam, Flying Pegus, won four times, and her half-sister, Miss Nero won ten times, including the Fernbank Hurdle at Ascot.