The Christmas period is one of great anticipation for racing fans and the professional horsemen that populate the sport; more so perhaps this year when TV audiences have been consistently higher than the norm as everyone is confined at home and unable to attend the races. The effect therefore of a televised winner on ITV Racing is magnified more than usual with significant viewing audiences.
Wiltshire trainers more than scooped their fair share of the 3 remaining Boxing Day Jumps fixtures, although largely among the supporting cast of races to Kempton's big Christmas fanfare.
Kempton at Christmas is synonymous above all with two trainers. Paul Nicholls arrived looking for a record twelfth King George VI Chase, mob-handed with four runners in the big race, whilst Nicky Henderson has a 26% strike rate at Kempton, and was confident enough to supplement Gold Cup third Santini to join issue.
As so often happens, the horses hadn't read the storyline. Frodon, self-confessedly the outsider of the Ditcheat four, led from pillar to post with a masterful management of the pace of the race by Bryony Frost that forced the other more fancied runners to bunch up, and played to her horse's strengths. The 2019 Ryanair winner led home Waiting Patiently from Ruth Jefferson's Yorkshire yard on a day for so-called underdogs, a description that really does little justice to Frodon. A winner of 16 of his 38 starts, he's a horse that wears his heart on his sleeve, rather like his rider.
If Nicholls achieved his objective, albeit not with the horse he expected, Henderson had to make do with small consolation in the form of the closing handicap hurdle with 25/1 shot Monte Cristo after Epatante failed to peg back the exuberant Silver Streak in the Christmas Hurdle. The flamboyant grey, carried out 3 weeks ago in the Fighting Fifth, finally won his Grade I spurs with a front-running performance that reminded everyone of another famous greay, synonymous with kempton - Desert Orchid. Hard to believe it's already 30 years since those memorable performances.
If the main races went to the sport's main protagonists, Marlborough came good under the TV lights when Emma Lavelle kept up her stable's fine current form in the Novices Handicap Hurdle with six year old Irish Point-to-Point winner Killer Clown, who won comfortably in the hands of Adam Wedge, the first leg of a double for the English rider.
Up at Wetherby, a big race finally came the way of the Alan King yard this Jumps season, when Canelo saw off a sustained challenge from Snow Princess in the Grade III Rowland Meyrick Chase under Tom Bellamy to bring up Alan's 29th winner of the term. It says something for the reputation of the yard that onlookers expect Barbury Castle to be winning big races consistently, yet the biggest handicaps have until today eluded the yard.
Nearer to home, it was the turn of Neil King to get back on the winning trail at Wincanton in the feature handicap chase with Nearly Perfect under leading Point-to-Point rider Jack Andrews. Neil will be glad to get his head back in front again after a lean few weeks, when the horses have just found something else too good each time.
Meantime, whilst Swindon falls into Tier 3 alongside much of the rest of the country, the popular Harkaway meeting, having swerved the Covid restrictions, fell foul of the dreadful wet weather just before Christmas, leaving scant pickings for Pointing fans. Larkhill on January 3 is still on, but January is looking a little threadbare.
Anyone know a racecourse on the Tier 1 Isle of Wight?!
The Christmas period is one of great anticipation for racing fans and the professional horsemen that populate the sport; more so perhaps this year when TV audiences have been consistently higher than the norm as everyone is confined at home and unable to attend the races. The effect therefore of a televised winner on ITV Racing is magnified more than usual with significant viewing audiences.
Wiltshire trainers more than scooped their fair share of the 3 remaining Boxing Day Jumps fixtures, although largely among the supporting cast of races to Kempton's big Christmas fanfare.
Kempton at Christmas is synonymous above all with two trainers. Paul Nicholls arrived looking for a record twelfth King George VI Chase, mob-handed with four runners in the big race, whilst Nicky Henderson has a 26% strike rate at Kempton, and was confident enough to supplement Gold Cup third Santini to join issue.
As so often happens, the horses hadn't read the storyline. Frodon, self-confessedly the outsider of the Ditcheat four, led from pillar to post with a masterful management of the pace of the race by Bryony Frost that forced the other more fancied runners to bunch up, and played to her horse's strengths. The 2019 Ryanair winner led home Waiting Patiently from Ruth Jefferson's Yorkshire yard on a day for so-called underdogs, a description that really does little justice to Frodon. A winner of 16 of his 38 starts, he's a horse that wears his heart on his sleeve, rather like his rider.
If Nicholls achieved his objective, albeit not with the horse he expected, Henderson had to make do with small consolation in the form of the closing handicap hurdle with 25/1 shot Monte Cristo after Epatante failed to peg back the exuberant Silver Streak in the Christmas Hurdle. The flamboyant grey, carried out 3 weeks ago in the Fighting Fifth, finally won his Grade I spurs with a front-running performance that reminded everyone of another famous greay, synonymous with kempton - Desert Orchid. Hard to believe it's already 30 years since those memorable performances.
If the main races went to the sport's main protagonists, Marlborough came good under the TV lights when Emma Lavelle kept up her stable's fine current form in the Novices Handicap Hurdle with six year old Irish Point-to-Point winner Killer Clown, who won comfortably in the hands of Adam Wedge, the first leg of a double for the English rider.
Up at Wetherby, a big race finally came the way of the Alan King yard this Jumps season, when Canelo saw off a sustained challenge from Snow Princess in the Grade III Rowland Meyrick Chase under Tom Bellamy to bring up Alan's 29th winner of the term. It says something for the reputation of the yard that onlookers expect Barbury Castle to be winning big races consistently, yet the biggest handicaps have until today eluded the yard.
Nearer to home, it was the turn of Neil King to get back on the winning trail at Wincanton in the feature handicap chase with Nearly Perfect under leading Point-to-Point rider Jack Andrews. Neil will be glad to get his head back in front again after a lean few weeks, when the horses have just found something else too good each time.
Meantime, whilst Swindon falls into Tier 3 alongside much of the rest of the country, the popular Harkaway meeting, having swerved the Covid restrictions, fell foul of the dreadful wet weather just before Christmas, leaving scant pickings for Pointing fans. Larkhill on January 3 is still on, but January is looking a little threadbare.
Anyone know a racecourse on the Tier 1 Isle of Wight?!
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