'We’ll go to wherever the rain is' - testing conditions help Stuart Edmunds surpass last season's tally with a double

Stuart Edmunds was grateful for the deluge of rain that meant Uttoxeter had to survive a morning inspection before the Buckinghamshire-based trainer saddled a double with his only two runners of the day.

Mexico had contested a couple of handicaps since finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Leamington Novices' Hurdle at Warwick in January and relished the step up in trip to justify 11-4 favouritism in the 2m7½f novice hurdle under Ciaran Gethings. 

The jockey then helped Marsh Wren give weight all round in the 2m4f mares’ handicap hurdle to record a fourth win from her last six starts.

“It was nice to be going to a race meeting knowing that there’s soft, heavy ground,” said Edmunds. “They both love that sort of ground.

“Mexico’s a fair horse. He just got squeezed out at the start of the EBF Final and it was probably too short for him. We’ll go to wherever the rain is. If it dries up he’ll be in the field and go novice chasing next season.”

The double helped Edmunds move to 21 winners for the season, one more than last term and his best since 2017-18. A couple of those successes have been supplied by Marsh Wren’s half-sister Sedge Wren and Edmunds added: “This is the best generation of that family we’ve had.

“Marsh Wren is very, very tough. She was a little bit out of sorts after we went to Carlisle last time, she scoped dirty afterwards. The whole family don’t know when they’re beaten.”

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