The Nicky Henderson bandwagon is rolling full steam ahead at present and amongst a hatful of winners up and down the current over the last week one that very much caught the eye was Ericht, who landed Newbury's Grade 2 Bet Totepool Winter Bumper at Newbury in impressive fashion, writes Elliot Slater.
A 31,000 euro purchase as a three-year-old at the Tattersalls Ireland Sales in the summer of 2009, the Alderbook gelding had made his debut under rules at Ascot in November when failing by only a three-quarters-of-a-length to beat the well regarded Ian Williams-trained Twentyfourcarat, who got the run of the race when allowed to slip his field some way from home. Clearly having benefitted a great deal from that initial outing, Ericht then justified odds-on and cantered to victory against 14 rivals at Huntingdon in January, before arriving at Newbury to take on strong opposition in a bumper that is always worth following. Patiently ridden by Barry Geraghty, the five year-old improved from the rear of the field to track the leaders into the straight before throwing down a challenge to Peckhamecho and taking up the running with two furlongs to travel. From then it was a matter of how far, as Ericht only had to be pushed out to beat the staying-on Bygones of Brid (a hugely impressive winner at Musselburgh the time before), by an easy four-lengths. Henderson was quick to comment after the race that he hates the Cheltenham Festival Bumper and thinks it ruins plenty of good horses, but he added that he thinks Ericht could be good enough. That sounds like a tip in itself and anyone keeping an eye on the Cheltenham Festival odds should bear it in mind. Ericht is now as short as 10/1 second favourite in the ante-post book for the ante-post book for the two-mile NH Flat race, although 14/1 is still available in the odd place.
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