TONY Bloom, the owner of Brighton Football Club, is also a very successful racehorse owner, and he enjoyed a Cheltenham victory this month with Poniros in the Grade 1 JCB Triumph Hurdle. Other Grade 1 National Hunt winners to carry his silks have been Energumene and Penhill, while on the flat he is best known for his association with the Group 1 winner Librisa Breeze.

Bloom’s first runner since he captured the Triumph Hurdle was at Kelso last weekend, and he kept his winning streak going. Is This For Real, a five-year-old son of Vendangeur (Galileo), is trained for Bloom by Fergal O’Brien, and was purchased as a winning pointer at last year’s Goffs UK Aintree Sale by Paddy Brennan for £80,000. The gelding returned to Aintree last December to contest a bumper, finishing fifth, but he won on Saturday in a flying finish, denying the Patrick Mullins-partnered, Harry Derham-trained favourite.