Two themes punctuated the chatter at Stratford’s annual Ladies Day, thronged with the great, good and glamorous of Warwickshire. Understandably, paddock picks were on this occasion not limited to the inside of the parade ring; there is nothing like dressing up to generate conversation at least among lady racing spectators.
The other chatter of course concerned the broadcast of Champions – Full Gallop, ITV’s new six part docuseries charting the highs and lows of the past jumps season. An early star of the show is Mr Hollywood himself, Harry Cobden, whose good looks and boyish charm engage spectators and viewers alike in equal measure. That he happens to be champion too only adds to that allure. We haven’t had a poster boy champion since John Francome, with no offence to other champion riders in the interim. Even A P would acknowledge he is no Adonis!
However, even champions have their upsets. it’s an unappealing stat for any budding rider that a fall will occur every 12 rides, and Cobden’s law of probability caught up with him in the opener, when an unseat on the Nicholls – trained Kick Up A Storm left him stood down for the rest of the afternoon, and an enforced couple of weeks on the sidelines.
The race, a 2m 6f handicap hurdle, went to the Alan King – trained Royal Pretender, under Tom Cannon, winning his third hurdle from 19 starts.
As any rider will know, one man’s loss is another’s gain, and the principal beneficiary this time around was Nico de Boinville, previously booked for just one rider for the Seven barrows team, who was promptly snapped up by Nicholls for a winning ride on novice chaser Matterhorn, who scored an 8l victory in the feature 2m John Murtagh 60th Birthday Handicap Chase. The winner is likely to turn out again next month when Newton Abbot’s programme includes a £25,000 handicap chase, even though he remains a novice. He looks a fun addition to owner Johnny de la Hey’s burgeoning stable of stars.
That collection of good horses is only likely to increase, given the imminent sale of Chris Giles impressive string of bloodstock today, which includes horses like Stay Away Fay and Rubaud, which Nicholls will surely want to keep at Ditcheat.
De Boinville’s good fortune with Nicholls continued when Soir de Gala justified 5/2 favouritism in winning the Watch Champions Full Gallop on ITVX Novices Handicap Chase over 2m 3f later in the afternoon for owner J P McManus. As first rides for a new trainer, this was something of a nice pick-me-up on an afternoon in which Nicholls added a third ready winner in the 2m novices hurdle with Brave Knight, this time under Harry Skelton.
There has never been a summer when Stratford enjoyed race divisions at three consecutive fixtures, but the confluence of unseasonably wetter conditions and a reduction in races by some 300, has precipitated some extraordinary results. Divisions 1 & 2 of the Allan Atkinson Memorial Handicap Hurdle over 3m2f may never feature in their own right in some racing quiz or other, but they provided 2 winning opportunities where only one was planned.
Entirely characteristic of the summer programme, the Twiston-Davies yard was quick to take advantage, producing Fine By Me to win the first division easily. Like many of his summer runners, Fine By Me runs in the colours of Twiston-Davies Equine, building up value until a suitable owner hoves into view.
Division II was not much more competitive, the winning distances being 6l and 17l, this time by six year old Catuaba, trained by Charlie Longsdon and ridden by 7lb claimer Elizabeth Gale, her ninth winner overall.
On a day when favourites won 5 of the seven races, layers were given some brief relief when Gary Hanmer produced a 1-2 in the Ardencote Mares Hurdle, where Marina Ocarina beat stablemate Northern Rose a head to delight the few backers of her at 25/1.
Normal service was resumed in the final bumper, when Dan Skelton kept up his early season push for winners and prize money, reaching 39 and over £320,000, when Ronnies Rules kept a 100% record under Rules when following up on debut success here at the start of the month for amateur Ben Sutton.
