Bergerac Takes The Gosforth Park Cup

The Northumberland Plate meeting is Newcastle’s biggest of the season and the 3 day festival has plenty of competitive racing. The evening meeting that is sandwiched between two day meetings, offers an array of different races across the card. Bergerac enjoyed a good winter on the all-weather and was back on the surface to take the 5f Jenningsbet In Shiremoor Gosforth Park Handicap.

Having enjoyed a fruitful spell before the turn of the New Year, Bergerac just found his form dropping as he tackled the turf season. He is a horse who enjoys a sound surface so the early season weather may have just hampered him a little. There was an unlucky run at York which suggested a return to form and the all-weather was the perfect option.

Lining up against the same sort of rivals you would expect in this contest, Bergerac was partnered by usual accomplice, Tom Eaves. Breaking from stall 11, Bergerac was always prominent down the near side. Returning to blinkers, the 6yo was racing enthusiastically through the early stages.

With plenty of speed on show, the field blitzed through the first half of the race. Spread across the track there was very little to separate the veteran sprinters as they passed halfway. They got racing at this point and Bergerac me under a drive from Tom as he continued to hold his pitch at the fore of the field.

The race was wide open inside the 2 and Bergerac was making good headway down the near side with the race developing more towards the centre. He has always had the extra stamina, being a winner over 6f, and he was starting to delve into that. Tom knows this as well as everything and had yet to really go all out.

Moving into the final furlong, Tom now asked for maximum effort and he got that in spades. Bergerac took the lead as the central runners gave way. He was up by a length and whilst rivals were closing, they couldn’t overcome the deficit. Galloping all the way to the line, Bergerac kept up his advantage and went on to score by 1/14 lengths.

These races always see similar types coming up against each other and Bergerac has been a mainstay in the class 2 events. When he is on song he is a good sprinter and there are plenty more races for him in the summer months. Having won at York previously, that will certainly be a big target. He has been there and done it so there would be no surprise to see Bergerac land another big prize at some stage this season.