Gunnery Officer was eventually pulled-up by Johnny Burke at Ascot

Johnny Burke understands why star trio didn't run at Ascot on Saturday

Horse Racing

Mon November 21, 2022 · 4y ago

Johnny Burke, who won the big handicap chase aboard Boothill at Ascot on Saturday, can understand why connections opted not to run three star names on the card.

Constitution Hill, Edwardstone and L’Homme Presse were all taken out of their respective engagements on the morning because of the going – which Burke felt wasn’t as initially described.

He told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “I’ll start with the going description in the morning, it wasn’t accurate – it was genuinely good ground. I’d have struggled to have put good to soft in it. Also, being Irish, I have a thing against this good to soft description.

“I think in Ireland we use yielding which is a very accurate description. You give it as good to soft and are going racing as punters, trainers, owners and jockeys but are you expecting more good or more soft? You don’t really know.

“It was genuine good ground on Saturday and I feel that was the accurate description for it and I can understand why it wasn’t suitable for some of those top horses.

“I rode a real winter horse in the hurdle race and he didn’t handle it while Boothill is a good ground horse and it rode safe on him. That was a fast race, a solid gallop and Boothill is a horse on the up.

“It’s frustrating for punters but I think our problems lie in the going descriptions rather than the going itself. If he called it good ground that would have been fair but he had good to soft, good in places to start with.”

Boothill is now fulfilling his earlier potential and has earned a rise in class off the back of his length-and-a-quarter defeat of So Scottish in the Jim Barry Wines Hurst Park Handicap Chase.

“I schooled him about six weeks ago in Lambourn and we were thinking of going up in trip and let him bowl along but Newton Abbot was a confidence-boosting run and he showed me pace he hadn’t shown me in his work and pace I’d probably lost faith in him having," Burke added.

“At Ascot they couldn’t go fast enough for him – he pulled hard for the best part of it and still found plenty. I’m biased but I think he’s a graded horse.

"I think the plan is the Grade Two at Kempton next, he’s been hard to train but he has his mojo back now. He gives you the feel of a very, very smart horse and hopefully he can keep climbing now."

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