Much praise has been heaped on budding young jockey Lucy Alexander this season and among the growing army of trainers looking to secure her services none can be keener than Bruce Mactaggart, for whom she has won five times aboard Red Tanber.
Lucy Alexander has struck up a successful partnership with Red Tanber
The nine-year-old gelding is close to the trainer’s heart having been bred by him and orphaned early in life when his dam Dreamy Desire succumbed to a twisted gut.
Now in his fourth season in training, Red Tanber has rewarded Mactaggart’s patience with five impressive steeplechase victories since early December – four of which came at his beloved Musselburgh and the most recent at the Borders track, Kelso, on Saturday, not far from the trainer’s base at Hawick.
During that time his handicap rating has increased by 36lbs from a lowly 79 to 115. With another rise in the weights on the way, Red Tanber could now make a rare trip south to run in the Grade 2 Jewson Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
