THE Grade 2 Winter Novices’ Hurdle at Sandown on Friday (yesterday) threw up something of a surprise when 10/1 shot Enrilo (Paul Nicholls/Harry Cobden) got the better of tenacious front-runner House Island (Paul Webber/Gavin Sheehan), having been beaten 34 lengths by the same rival in an ordinary event at Ludlow last month.

In fairness to Enrilo, he shaped better than the distance beaten at Ludlow, but was very hard to steer under Bryony Frost that day, and while plenty of horses go very sweetly for the darling of the press, some clearly don’t.

The son of Buck’s Boum was much more balanced reunited with Cobden, for whom he has now won four of five starts.

Favourite

House Island set what looked a fair pace, disputing with Kim Bailey’s favourite Happygolucky, but the pair quickened again leaving the back straight to leave some of the others out of their ground.

It was Enrilo and Cobden who were best placed to thrown down a challenge when Happygolucky cracked early in the straight.

Eventually they wore down House Island to win by three-quarters of a length.

The winner deserves credit for bridging the gap which the front pair built up, but he was certainly better placed than most to do so.

It would be unwise to suggest the finishing order is a cast-iron representation of the absolute merit of this inexperienced field.

Many of them will presumably be aimed at a similar event at Cheltenham in January, and it will be intriguing to see how the pecking order develops.

Doyle breaks record

THERE was an air of inevitability about it when she passed the century mark last month, and Hollie Doyle duly broke the British record for the number of wins for a female jockey in a calendar year. She eclipsed the old record of 106 set by Josephine Gordon just two years ago when steering Class Clown to victory at Southwell on Thursday.

Champion

The winner is trained by David Barron, appropriately an early champion of another pioneer in Alex Greaves.

She made history by taking part in the Derby, and by riding a Group 1 winner, ironically enough dead-heating with the Barron-trained Coastal Bluff when partnering Ya Malak to share the spoils in the Nunthorpe Stakes in 1997.