Rookie trainer Ewen Whillans made the long trip from the Scottish borders worthwhile yesterday as Cracking Destiny asserted around the final turn to win the feature Brian and Sheila Vaughan Memorial Handicap Chase under Callum Bewley, and for good measure followed up in the bumper with Scot’s Poet.
Long time leader Mercian Prince looked to have come to the end of his effort after the second last as rivals Courtandbould, Yccs Portocervo and Cracking Destiny bunched up behind. Bewley got the best run on the outer of the leader to run to the last and always had the measure of the Twiston-Davies’ -ridden Yccs Portocervo – a commentator’s nightmare – on the run to the line.
Scot’s Poet, also ridden by Callum Bewley, prevailed by showing good late speed in a final two furlongs with plenty of bumping and boring in one of the better-supported bumpers of the summer to date.
Whillans, taking over the licence from father Alistair, is in the rare position of achieving a 100% record from his two runners to date, having held a licence only since Wednesday. Not often a starter sets out with two trips to The Winners Enclosure with his first two runners!
Runner-up Sam Twiston-Davies, whose perseverance on Yccs Portocervo made for such an exciting finish in the feature, came good himself a little over an hour later when Lawtop Legend won the National Racehorse Week 12-19th September Handicap Chase over 3m 3f, continuing the great strike rate of Richard Newland and his first jockey. With 55 win and placed horses from 82 runners, the pair boasts a 67% return on horses running from the yard; small wonder Newland is attracting owners a-plenty.
Jockey Page Fuller enjoyed contrasting fortunes in the two novice chases, winning the Sd Photography Novices Handicap comprehensively for Marlborough handler David Weston, but losing her chance when her mount Some Day Soon blundered two out in the Avon Novices Chase later in the card. It was the recovery of the day as she was shot up the neck of her horse and clung on to retrieve a third place for retained trainer Jamie Snowden.
Weston has an admirable record from a small band of horses at his base in East Kennett, this being his fourth winner from just 10 runners, something of a contrast to Donald McCain and Brian Hughes, eventual winners of the 2m5f Novices event with Presentandcounting, enjoying a fifth win this year already.
Another trainer with admirable stats is Devon – based Claire Hitch, who produced another talented youngster in Every Breakin Wave, who followed up his July victory at Newton Abbot with a 1/2l win in the Claire Boskett 30th Birthday Novices Hurdle. Claire cut her teeth on the Point-to-Point circuit; just another example of how the grass roots of the sport has merged indiscernibly with the lower ranks of the professional game.
Ben Pauling is one of many mainstream trainers who have largely reverted to type after adopting the summer game wholeheartedly after the enforced break of 2020. His August runners are a shadow of the effort from last year, but Serjeant Painter, formerly with Marcus Tregoning, was determined enough to make amends for this, staying on well to win the opening Stratford Racing Club Novices Handicap Hurdle by 1 3/4l from Jakamani, representing Mark Bradstock. Pauling’s six winners this season to date have reassuringly been from six individual horses which speaks of more to come.