Some heavy showers didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of hundreds of Warwickshire finest at Stratford’s annual Ladies Day yesterday – a festival of glamour and turnout not just limited this time around to the horses. Prizes were awarded for the best dressed couple, best hat and overall turnout, prizes underwritten by Ardencote Spa, Hiorns Hats, Grace & Dotty and Avon Estates. One group of ladies set up shop right by the winners’ enclosure – squatters’ rights in the event of a victory in the Best Dressed or on the track.
It was two equine ladies who fought out the finish to the £24,000 feature, the Skip Hire Flyer Handicap Chase over 2m1f, the race run under a heavy downpour, which changed the Going description to Good. Alan King’s Finest View, seeking to add to her hat-trick of victories this summer, clashed with Arclight, from Seven Barrows, and the two ran a ding-dong battle from the last, before James Bowen conjured a little extra from the Henderson-trained 6 year old to win by a neck. Malystic ran on to be a distant 12l third.
Britain’s most versatile dual purpose trainer, Alan King, had previously been successful in the Allan Atkinson Novices Hurdle over the same distance, with Nap Hand, who rewarded favourite backers with a ready 2 1/4l victory over Hope Rising. The five year old looks more than capable of defying a penalty.
Ten faced the starter in the ensuing novices handicap hurdle, producing the first leg of a Dan Skelton double when brother Harry rode Victory Club to a popular 5/2 victory over Donald McCain’s Guillaume, the rest of the field well strung out behind.
Skelton Jnr didn’t have to work very much harder on the second leg of the double, as 2/1 favourite Queen’s Venture asserted her dominance over a distant Could Be Trouble by 17l in the Hiorns Hats Handicap Hurdle over 2m 6f.
This time last year, the Skelton stable was leading the Trainers’ Championship by a country mile. His 106 runners since the start have generated 23 winners and £215,000 in prize money, but James Owen is leading the field a merry dance at present with 29 winners and £254,000. Nevertheless, it doesn’t take too many Saturday races from October onward to change the complexion of the contest.
Owen added to his tally in the opener when Alex Chadwick paired up with Back In The Bay to overcome 5 others in the Ardencote Spa Mares Handicap Hurdle for conditional riders. Owen is flying high at present; his 66 flat winners have earned over £900,000 for the yard this summer as well.
Another yard with a foot in both codes is Richard Newland and Jamie Insole, who teamed up with Charlie Deutsch to claim the 2m 3f Clive Bennett Memorial Novices Handicap Chase with The Dream Goes On, who may have appreciated the slower pace, the race 29 seconds below standard. Deutsch is a rare sighting in the summer, the core of his support coming from winter-focused yards. However, he is worth following in the summer, where he is a rarity among riders in having a positive return to a £1 stake. Thirty rides to date have delivered no more than a couple of winners, but at healthy prices.
Moro Rock paid the fuel bill from North Yorkshire for Sara Ender in the closing 3m 2f handicap hurdle under Harry Bannister, providing a third winner of the term for the Yorkshire stable. In doing so, he continued the frustrating summer for Seamus Mullins whose Hurst Hill produced yet another second placed horse at Stratford.
