Gwafa wins easily to become our first jumps winner
28 January 2016
Gwafa: easy winner of his maiden hurdle
We celebrated our first winner over jumps on Thursday when Gwafa, our very first jumps runner, was the easy winner of the maiden hurdle at Fakenham.
Always prominent, Gwafa turned in an enthusiastic round of jumping and wasn’t pressed to score by 15 lengths under Richie McLernon.
“Gwafa is a half-brother to Australia Day and I´d been following him on the Flat,” Paul Webber told the Racing Post. “He got a tendon problem at Ascot, came to us and we gave him plenty of time. He´s an awful lot more sensible than Australia Day and needs a bit more experience but he could be a horse for Aintree.”
Gwafa was a smart handicapper for Marco Botti who won his maiden at Newmarket by no less than 19 lengths before running second in a pair of classy handicaps at Haydock and Ascot.
Subsequently sent to Paul Webber, Gwafa shaped well on his hurdling debut at Kempton last month when sixth off a long absence behind Altior in a competitive novice hurdle.
Gwafa was a 60,000gns Tattersalls December foal purchase by Tony Nerses in 2011. The son of Tamayuz was bred by Kenilworth House Stud and is a half-brother to Group 3 winner Marjalina as well as classy hurdler Australia Day.
Gwafa is one of three jumpers we have in training with Paul Webber alongside Idder and My Judge.
