Trainer Sandy Thomson has long had a knack of improving experienced horses that are moved to his yard. A combination of the healthy Scottish Borders air and a new regime have done wonders for several veteran chasers over the years, including Harry The Viking, Yorkhill and Dingo Dollar. The secret? ‘Individual care. It’s all about trying to work out as quickly as possible what each horse wants. Every horse is different,’ the genial Thomson told me last year.
This season a stay at Thomson’s yard has led to a marked improvement in the form of BENSON, a hurdler with plenty of miles on the clock when connections paid just £7,000 for him as a seven-year-old gelding last year. Since then Benson has run four times for Thomson, coming third twice and winning his last race at Musselburgh on New Year’s Day by 11 lengths. Those top runs saw his handicap rating go up from 123 when he arrived at the yard to 134 today.
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