Tag Archive for: George Baker

Baker hoping to chart Pertemps path with Mullins recruit

Jon Snow is pencilled in for his British debut at Chepstow on Saturday, as he looks to book his slot at the Cheltenham Festival.

The French-bred gelding was previously run in the Susannah Ricci silks and trained by Willie Mullins, winning five times over hurdles and fences before changing hands last autumn.

George Baker is now the eight-year-old’s trainer after he topped ThoroughBid’s Autumn Sale at £50,000 and is looking forward to running him for the first time for new connections at the weekend.

Entered in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle at Chepstow, the horse’s performance will determine which race he lines up for when the Festival gets under way at Cheltenham in March.

“All being well, Jon Snow’s entered up at Chepstow in the Pertemps qualifier on Saturday,” said Baker.

“If he finishes in the first four on Saturday and he qualifies for the Pertemps, he’ll go there.

“That’s over the extended trip, the three-mile trip, which I think would suit him.

“If he doesn’t finish in the first four on Saturday then we have the option of the Coral Cup, he will probably run in one or the other of those two – those are my thoughts are the moment.

“Let’s hope he gets through Saturday in good form, we’re pretty excited to get him out on the track.”

Jon Snow is partly owned by Paul Bowden, the same man also involved in the ownership of Flat campaigner Lucander – a horse likely headed for the Winter Derby at Lingfield after a successful bout in the desert of Bahrain.

Few owners can say they have switched their attentions from the Bahrain Flat scene to the Cheltenham Festival in the space of a month, but Baker’s wide-lens approach has paid dividends for connections so far.

He said: “It’s brilliant really, Paul Bowden has been a fantastic supporter of ours.

“You’ve got to make this game fun for the owners and if that means searching for opportunities on foreign shores then that’s great, and it’s also fantastic to be involved in the bigger races back home.”

Baker could bid to strike while the iron is hot with in-form Lucander

George Baker may have the BetUK Winter Derby lined up for Lucander after his lucrative spell in Bahrain.

The six-year-old was formerly trained by Ralph Beckett and on changing stables was sent to spearhead Baker’s team of runners targeting valuable contests in Bahrain over the winter months.

His debut in the desert was a winning one as he took the Al Muharraq Cup in early December and last Friday he capped his stay in warmer climes with another success, this time in the Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Cup – a local Group Two.

The gelding is now in the checking-in stage of his journey home, and if all is well after his flight he will be headed to Lingfield on Saturday to contest the Group Three Winter Derby.

“He will BE jumping on an aeroplane from Bahrain in a few hours’ time, he won the big race over there on Friday and he seems very fresh and bouncy afterwards,” Baker said on Monday afternoon.

“Assuming all is well with him when he gets off the plane and gets back to us tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have a long hard look at Saturday’s race because when a horse is in good form you want to strike again.

“He’ll probably have a break after this, so if all is well we will hope to swing the bat on Saturday and then give him a bit of break after his time away ahead of some mid-summer targets.”

Lucander ran three times on the all-weather for Beckett, never winning but placing on each occasion and doing plenty to suggest the surface will be to his liking.

Baker said: “He hasn’t run on the all-weather for us, we’re still finding out about this horse but what we do know is that he is in great form. It’s probably a massive ask on Saturday but we thought it was a big ask last Friday.

“He’ll only run if we’re very happy with him on Wednesday and Thursday, but the indications are that he’s come out of Friday’s race really well and he’s got some decent form on the all-weather.

“With a horse that’s in good order, why not give it a go?”

Also entered in the race are the John and Thady Gosden trio of Harrovian, Lord North and Forest Of Dean.

The latter two horses bring specific race form to the table, with Lord North second in the race behind Alenquer last season and Forest Of Dean the winner in 2021.

Roger Varian’s striking grey Tyrrhenian Sea is another to stand his ground alongside Simon and Ed Crisford’s Winter Oaks heroine Al Agaila, Andrew Balding’s Foxes Tales, William Knight’s King Of The South and John Ryan’s Pistoletto.