There’s a racing adage that the sport allows you to get close up to the action, mingling among the jockeys and trainers, or watching from a fence, unlike some stadium – based sports. Stratford racegoers on Saturday certainly had their share of close-up action after one of the runners in the opener decanted his rider, and jumped into the public enclosures. Happily, that effort alone was enough to slow him to a trot whereupon a member of staff was able to usher him back into the pre-parade ring.
By comparison, events on the track were somewhat less eventful. St Pancras, successful in a listed juvenile hurdle at Musselburgh in February, and a subsequent second to Mambonumberfive in the Grade II Adonis Hurdle at Kempton, made all in this less exalted all-age company to maintain his excellent record over the smaller obstacles for Toby Lawes and long time owners Andrew & Sarah Wates. On-Course bookmakers, sponsors of the entire card, ensured no-one got rich however; the four year old went off at a prohibitive 1/5 under Kevin Brogan.
A novices handicap followed with a similar-sized 10 runner field, in stark comparison to Sunday’s Ascot card which attracted just 30 runners, and a winner that might have been designed for the sponsors. Get The Value disputed the lead in the Cash Is King Handicap Hurdle, and bar a blunder at the last, had the race in safe keeping from the home bend, winning by 6l. It was a welcome return to the winner’s enclosure for John O’Shea, whose winner drought had extended back to November, less so for rider Kielan Woods, his 45th of the term.
The feature Green Diamond Handicap Chase proved a somewhat select affair, attracting 4 declarations, which became three after the withdrawal of Pedley Wood at the start. Newmarket runners are an unfamiliar sight at Stratford, and spectators might have been forgiven for thinking winner Mahon’s Wood was in Gigginstown Stud colours, but trainer Dylan Cunha has a 100% record with his jumps runners, and Mahon’s Wood never saw another horse in his 3 1/4l pillar to post victory.
Second-placed combination Olly Murphy and Sean Bowen in that handicap made a winning return an hour or so later when combining to justify 7/2 favouritism in the 2m 6f Service With A Smile On Course Bookmakers Handicap Hurdle with Tropical Speed, who saw off the largest field of the day to overcome 11 others. If truth be told, the smiles of on-course layers were, by now, more than a little false, this being the fifth of six winning favourites through the course of the day.
The Tizzard yard passed the £1m prize money marker earlier this month, and Siam Park became winner number 61 for Brendan Powell in the other chase of the day, the 2m3f Better Value With Racecourse Bookmakers Handicap. The six year old wasn’t pushed to land the odds and might readily defy a penalty.
Selling races exist but few nowadays, and Stratford remains one of the last bastions of this genre of race. Time was when they produced a steady stream of revenue for racecourses, but the frequency of public auctions nowadays has made them largely redundant, except as a winning opportunity for low – rated horses. This privilege was afforded to Honneur d’Ajonc, who kept close to the pace throughout under Alex Chadwick, and scored by 2 3/4l over the inappropriately – named Greatness Awaits for trainer James Owen. there was no bid for the winner.
