Meetmebythesea continuing to make a splash

Meetmebythesea took his career record to five wins from six outings in a competitive novice chase at Ayr on Tuesday.

Trained by Ben Pauling and owned by JP McManus, the six-year-old’s sole defeat to date came in the EBF Final at Sandown in March.

Having made a pleasing chasing debut at Wetherby when beating subsequent Grade Two runner-up Push The Button, he faced Olly Murphy’s Fingle Bridge and Sandy Thomson’s Dedicated Hero in the Book Coral Scottish Grand National “Chasing Excellence” Novices’ Chase.

Settled at the back by Ben Jones, he warmed to his task in the straight and pinged the last, where Fingle Bridge lost all momentum, beating the staying-on Dedicated Hero by a length and three-quarters.

“It was a lovely second run over fences,” said Pauling of the 5-2 winner.

“I’m not sure if he loved the ground as he was a bit slow into stride, but he jumped very nicely up the home straight which is what won him the race.

“He looks a nice work in progress for the future.”

He went on: “His only defeat was in the EBF Final which is also his only race over two and a half miles, but I don’t think everything quite fell into place for him that day. Equally with a bit of luck he’ll stay further in time.”

Paddy Power cut the winner to 12-1 from 20s for the Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase at Cheltenham and Pauling said: “I’m not 100 per cent sure where we’ll go with him. He still needs another run to qualify (for the handicaps at Cheltenham) so we’ll see how we go.

“He’s a lovely horse for the future and hopefully he can keep going the right way.”