The prolonged dry spell is playing havoc with field sizes, albeit it hasn’t prevented Champion Trainer contender Dan Skelton sending runners far and wide in defence of his challenge against Willie Mullins, now breathing down his neck after a rampant Cheltenham, Aintree and Ayr. Skelton was a surprise absentee from Stratford yesterday, when easy pickings were on offer with only 35 runners in total.
The six race card reflected the change of the seasons, with just two steeplechases, one a Hunters chase. Pottlerath made the best of a week turnout for the Racecourse Streams On Racing TV Extra Handicap Chase over 3m, run at a muddling pace, some 32 seconds below standard. The starter was already one runner down at flagfall, Groom de Cotte being withdrawn on account of the ground, but the judge had an even less arduous task, only three finishing. Pottlerath is no champion, but scored his fourth over fences, and first past the post since running up a hat-trick in Summer ’23. He added a 17th success to Matt Sheppard’s best ever season in numerical, if not yet prize money, terms, with son Stan in the plate for an unchallenged 5l victory over Getthepot.
Richard Hawker was the beneficiary of the withdrawal of Milton Harris’ licence in mid-summer last year when taking charge of Presenting Yeats. The nine year old son of four time Ascot Gold Cup winner has but a smidgen of his sire’s talent, but returned to form in the Alan Adcock 90th Birthday Handicap Hurdle over 3m. Held up at the back of the field, he made headway around the final bend to win handily by 9 1/2l from Clover Pass, under Harry Reed.
Two mares races made up part of the card, the first a maiden hurdle, where Keep On Cobbling under Sam Twiston-Davies, improved on her second at Doncaster a month ago when landing the odds in the opener for Henry Daly by 2 1/2l from El Fabienne.
The second mares’ contest, the Howley Energy & Water Handicap Hurdle, attracted just 4 runners. Three met the last together, but Magical Annie took a heavy (and it turned out, fatal) fall, hampering Honeywort, and leaving the Nicky Henderson – trained Therapist to pick up the pieces, a distance clear under Nico de Boinville.
James Owen generated a short-priced across the card double with Jackpot Cash at Stratford and It’s A Love Thing at Musselburgh on the flat. The length winner of a novices handicap hurdle was the latest in a strong suit of winners for the Newmarket yard: 10 from the latest 39 runners.
Allmankind, once a leading light at Skelton’s, is now treading the light fantastic in hunter chases, and will likely return for the Hunters meeting at the end of May after a 1 3/4l win with plenty in hand in the closing 2m6f hunters evening for Alex Chadwick and Mrs J Owen.
