Newbury Saturday

THE Grade 2 British EBF “National Hunt” Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle was the feature contest at Newbury last Saturday and a decision to bypass Cheltenham paid dividends for Alan King as his Charisma Cat - racing in the colours of Annabel Waley-Cohen, wife of Grand National-winning jockey Sam - won the limited handicap in fine style to cap a successful first season over hurdles for the daughter of Nathaniel.

Sent off at 6/1 in a field of 15, Charisma Cat (Tom Bellamy) raced prominently before being sent for home with three hurdles to jump and kept on stoutly over the longest trip she has tackled to beat Pismo Beach (Stuart Edmunds/Murray Dodd) by three and a quarter lengths, with Shotgun Shirley (Lucy Wadham/Tom Cannon) third, another length and three-quarters behind in a race where the field ended up well strung out.

The decision to go to Newbury rather than take a swing at the Dawn Run Novices was doubly sweet for Bellamy, who rode the winner of both races.

Rest Of The Card

The Goffs Hundred Grand Bumper has no pattern status, but with £100,000 in the prize fund, is worth considerably more than the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, and is always a competitive affair.

This year’s race was won by Lady Hope (Hughie Morrison/Jonathan Burke), who came late and fast to pull off a 33/1 shock, beating Madam Speaker (Nicky Henderson/Sean Bowen) by three-parts of a length on what was her racecourse bow.

Bred by David Redvers and owned in partnership by Martin Hughes and Michael Kerr-Dineen, Lady Hope is a granddaughter of that wonderful little racemare Lady Rebecca and her owners, better known in flat circles, will be hoping to breed from her when her racing days are done.

Excellent season

Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith have enjoyed an excellent season and registered their 37th winner of the season when 4/1 chance Prairie Wolf got the better of the front-running Twinjets in the two-and-a-half-mile handicap chase, earning himself a tilt at the Topham at Aintree in a couple of weeks.

Sam Thomas has enjoyed his best campaign to date and added another to his tally when Palacio (Dylan Johnston) landed the John Haine Memorial Chase, a race named in honour of the late Johnny Haine, remembered as perhaps the most stylish rider of the 1960s, when jump jockeys enjoyed the popularity of pop stars. Palacio was returned at an SP of 16/5.

Around The Tracks

WORLD Of Fortunes (James Kenny/Jordan Gainford) is a useful mare when given a test of stamina and she provided her trainer with his first winner under rules, when landing the Listed BetWright Beeswing Mares’ Hurdle at Kelso on Saturday.

Kicked on by Gainford two from home, she had too much staying power for Sunset Marquesa (Joe Tizzard/Brendan Powell), powering up the final hill to win by five and a half lengths at an SP of 11/4.

Kenny, who took over the licence from his father Liam in November, is eyeing up opportunities at either Punchestown or Sandown next month for his stable star, but confirmed that she won’t be asked to jump a fence again, having not enjoyed a previous experience.

Richest race of the day at Kelso was the £100,000 BetWright Herring Queen Series Final, which went the way of Queenie St Clair (Nick Scholfield/Freddie Keighley), who belied her 20/1 starting price, making smooth headway to lead at the penultimate hurdle before repelling the late challenge of First Candidate (Dan Skelton/Tristan Durrell) by a length.

Rookie trainer Scholfield took a little time to find his stride, but has hit a purple patch in recent weeks, and was saddling his 18th winner of the season, which bodes well for the future.

Kempton Wednesday

ALL eyes were on Constitution Hill at Kempton on Wednesday, as he took his second step on a belated flat career, and some bookmakers were impressed enough with his win (at odds of 1/7 under Ryan Moore) in another novice contest to make him favourite for the Ebor Handicap at York in August, although his trainer is keen to keep him at around a mile and a half for the time being.

“I’m not used to the lights,” said Henderson at the floodlit meeting. “I can’t say I saw an awful lot.

“It’s too busy to have a long debrief. I think Ryan’s main thing that I liked a lot is he said the horse is enjoying himself a lot and I think that’s important. He’s had a year of not enjoying his racing terribly; you can understand why. If he’s enjoying that, then that’s great for us.

“I think the main thing is he thinks a mile and a half is probably as far as he needs to go. He’ll go further, yes, but he’s not a big, old, slow jumper by a very long way. He’s deceptive in his size. We’ll sit down and have to think.”