August Harestock Handicap
Exciting Racing at the August Handicap with Susy Perry a comfortable winner, Carrie Oliver 2nd and Ruben Price 3rd.....but that's only half the story
The August edition of the Harestock Handicap was something of a challenge for the handicapper so apologies if this gets a bit anorak....
Firstly it was a fine evening for running and we had a good turnout with Ethan Skipwith making a very welcome first appearance at the Handicap plus Ruben Price and Susy Perry making their first appearances of the year.
So our winner was Susy Perry (7'54) taking full advantage of the handicapper being caught up in a momentary lapse of reason to power round and be home, hosed and getting cold well ahead of the arriving pack. Carrie Oliver (9'55) was 2nd after starting as the low handicap and holding off all bar one. Ruben Price (5'41) was 3rd with a fine run through the crowd after starting as the high handicap and passing all bar two. Already something of a dream outcome for the handicapper with the podium being filled with athletes from all across our pace spectrum...in handicap racing everyone is in the race and anyone can take that podium place.
On top of that there was a large and competitive bunch of runners racing hard to the line with perhaps 10 athletes in a congested sweetspot....with racing that tight there's soon going to be a demand for sprint training! Then almost incidentally Susy was our 8th different winner this year....8 months, 8 different winners...stuff of dreams.
Excitement too with the quality on display. Ruben Price (5'41) was our fastest on the night and narrowly missed out on the course record currently held at 5'39 by Adrian Fautly. Ethan Skipwith (6'00) was next a fine performance on his first handicap run and good enough to put him straight onto the honours board at No11. The fastest lady was Susy Perry (7'54) but that's only narrowly ahead of Mikaela Price (7'55).
In the overall standings Paul Oxley remains top of the pile with Ian Parker and Colin McManus still in close attendance and tied 2nd at the moment. Plenty time yet with 4 races still to come and 2 discards still to be number crunched into the mix...probably just as well as the Ollies are currently neck and neck to be 4th and 5th overall.
The next handicap event will be the first Thursday in September, the 7th....19.30 first start. I am told that Ruben and Ethan plan to be there again so that course record could be under threat! It would be lovely to see some more of the speedy runners there too so we can have a bit of a burn up at the sharp end....the course is only 1.14 miles, just a pick-up effort for you guys.
