Author: Peter McNeile

Trainers best known for their midwinter stable strength were in charge at our most recent fixture on Saturday evening in front of a sizeable crowd enjoying the late Spring sunshine.

First of our winter types to strike was Emma Lavelle, whose successful partnership with Tom Bellamy delivered Light N Strike to win the Hydraulic Centre Ltd 40th Anniversary Handicap Chase by 7 1/2l. The bigger obstacles evidently appeal to the Leading Light gelding; this was his third victory from just 7 starts over fences.

Kim Bailey, a model of consistency, was next up, with 10l winner Shantou Express in the Technicair Air Conditioning Handicap Hurdle. A paltry 4 faced the starter – scant reward for the delivery of good watered ground, but consistent with the plague of small fields facing the sport at every level currently. Bailey enjoyed a good 2021-22 season without hitting the dizzying heights of the previous season with Grade I success. He of all people will appreciate that you train what you have in front of you, and sadly many owners have opted to bring their horses home this Spring rather than wait for softer conditions underfoot at £50+ per day and in all honesty, who can blame them?

Forgot To Ask notched a fourth chase win in the last steeplechase of the evening, the Charles Peters Recruitment Handicap Chase, as Jonathan Burke kept his cool to reel in the Henry Brooke – trained Dhowin at the last and win going away. It didn’t look that way around the final bend, but the distance to the line can be deceptive at Stratford, and so it proved once again. The winning distance for the Tom George – trained winner was 4 1/4l.

The demands of training racehorses as a business have grown an increasing trend of business partnerships from the upper reaches of the flat to small time Jumps handlers. Paperwork, red tape, and the sheer demands of overseeing syndicates rather than single owners have made this a necessary means of spreading responsibility. Charles and Adam Pogson are one such combination, albeit with a limited number of horses. it’s difficult to fault their 33% strike rate in this latest season however, enhanced by Larch Hill’s 2 1/2l victory over favourite Atlantic Storm in the feature Alan Clarke 80th Birthday Handicap Chase. 2 winners from 6 runners may make this an unrepresentative statistic, but it’ll still be one to savour.

Someone with an even more impressive strike rate presently is Richard Hawker, training near Frome. Home-bred Thirsty Farmer was handy throughout before taking it up around the final bend and seeing off runner-up Vinnie’s Icon to win the Mid Warwickshire Cleaning Supplies 50th Anniversary Handicap Hurdle over 2m 6f. The Hawker stable is currently on fire with a 60% strike rate and two winners from the last 3 runners.

The days of big field novice hurdles seem a long distant memory, and it could be argued that young horses learn more in small, less bustling fields. Yet a small field doesn’t prevent a good finish, and the best of the evening was that which headed the card in the Glentucky Derby Novices Hurdle over the minimum trip. The race turned into a fight between Tardree and Toronto, in which the latter, trained by Brian Barr, showed good speed to assert 150 yards from home to win by 3/4l under Angus Cheleda.

The evening concluded with the fixture’s largest field in a Novices Handicap Hurdle in which the Adam West – trained Noahthirtytwored held off the in-form stable of Milton Harris, represented by Tarseem, to land the spoils by 4l.

Dan Skelton’s success at the Cheltenham Festival has been somewhat sporadic, unlike his rivals with whom he will do battle for the major honours over four days next week. Willie Mullins, Henry de Bromhead, Nicky Henderson, Gordon Elliott, Colin Tizzard and Paul Nicholls will all have ambitions of securing the leading titles of the week, with the Irish contingent boasting a strong claim for seemingly every top race at the Festival.

However, Skelton has had a solid season with his best horses and could be in line to shock spectators across jumps racing by making a successful bid for the Gold Cup among others, which feature a number of intriguing prices in the Cheltenham betting 2022 options. Skelton has more than a decent shout in the signature event of the week in the Gold Cup with his charge Protektorat, laid out for the race. The bay gelding is considered one of the leading contenders in the Cheltenham Gold Cup tips behind A Plus Tard, Galvin and Minella Indo for the blue riband of the sport. To win the Gold Cup would be a significant breakthrough for Skelton to announce himself at the top table.

He has achieved victories in the Mares’ Hurdle and County Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival before, but a win for Protektorat would raise Skelton’s game immeasurably. The bay gelding has an outside chance after recording a win in the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree in December, hammering the rest of the field by 25 lengths, including former Gold Cup winner Native River, after which he was put away for the Spring. A Plus Tard, Galvin and Minella Indo are a step up in class, but Skelton can at least be confident that his charge can compete with the best in the business, and he will be fresh after a midwinter break that has seen him prepared specifically for this moment.

The Gold Cup is not the only race targeted by Skelton in pursuit of a successful Cheltenham. There are other opportunities for Skelton to pick up significant scalps outside of the Gold Cup. Third Time Lucki has been a solid operator over the course of the campaign and is an intended runner in the Arkle Chase. He was beaten by the race favourite Edwardstone in his last outing at Warwick in the Kingmaker Novices’ Chase and was previously off the pace in another contest against his rival in the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown Park. However, Third Time Lucki does have two victories at Cheltenham Racecourse under his belt this term and merits a run in the Arkle Chase to upset the rest of the field.

Nube Negra finished just behind Put The Kettle On in the Champion Chase last season and will run again in the contest next week. The scale of the challenge has been increased by the presence of Shishkin and Energumene, who are expected to battle it out for the leading honours. Last year’s favourite Chacun Pour Soi is also present and will be out for redemption for Mullins. Skelton’s charge did beat a talented field in the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham in November, including last season’s Champion Chase winner, but was off the pace in his last race in the Tingle Creek Chase, finishing fourth. At odds of 14/1, he could be worth an outside chance given his record at the racecourse, but he will have to put in a sterling performance to defeat the hot favourites Shishkin and Energumene or hope for a mistake from both horses. However, in a race like the Champion Chase, one mistake is all it needs to lose the advantage. A foot perfect round could yet be enough to land the odds.

Skelton is well placed to make an impact at Cheltenham Festival, but he will need the rub of the green and brilliant displays from his charges to announce his arrival among the elite of the sport.

In preparation for a busy new season at Stratford, the racecourse is pleased to be at the forefront of improvements in horse welfare, following the implementation of an exhaustive research project by the University of Exeter, in partnership with the sport’s governing body, the British Horseracing Authority.

From the opening fixture on Monday March 14, take-off boards and fence and hurdle sight boards will change in colour from fluorescent orange to white. The research, concluded in 2020, found that horses have reduced colour vision compared to humans, seeing colours along a continuous range from blue to yellow, and therefore cannot distinguish between many of the colours that humans see as red, orange, and green. What originally appeared to be an excellent idea to paint the take-off boards bright orange has in reality been of little help to the horse.

The research was carried out at 11 racecourses in a variety of different lighting conditions between February 2017 – 2018, and included trials with horses at training grounds too. Fence colour significantly affected the way a horse jumped the fence with regards to its takeoff and landing distances, and the angle of takeoff that a horse made during a jump. The colour of the fences plays a role in both the shape that the horses made whilst jumping a fence and the total distance jumped. 

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, trainer Richard Phillips reported, “To start with we were slightly dubious about the whole concept but the evidence was quite striking. To both the riders and those on the ground the horses seemed to jump the obstacles with white rails more fluently and with more precision than they did the orange obstacles.” 

Over the space of a 12 month period, equine casualty records over the last five years have consistently indicated an annual average of 176 fatalities in racing at large, predominantly, but not exclusively, due to jumping errors. BHA has successfully reduced faller rates through a combination of means, including managing field sizes, altering distances or starts to accommodate the distance to the first obstacle and through better monitoring of licensed personnel. There is no zero option here in a sport as fast and unpredictable as Jump racing, but the Exeter University research maintains a downward momentum on injury rates through a remorseless focus on safety, without sanitizing the sport.

The research, overseen by BHA’s Senior Course Inspector Richard Linley, who has extended experience of race-riding in a highly successful career as first jockey to the Rimells, has some relevance to other equestrian sport too.

One fall is a fall too many, but if this seemingly innocuous change reduces risk without diminishing the spectacle, then the sport and all its followers are winners.