SEVEN hunter chases were run in Britain in the last two weeks and two of these were won by horses owned and ridden by Downpatrick-born David Maxwell.

In a four-horse race over three miles, two furlongs at Fontwell on Sunday, February 24th, the Richard Hobson-trained Shantou Flyer saw off the only other finisher, Southfield Vic, by 35 lengths. This brought up a hunter chase double for the 2010 Shantou gelding who had won a maiden hurdle at Downpatrick and four races over fences before his purchase by the London-based property investor last summer.

Shantou Flyer holds an entry in next week’s St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham where he finished second last year in the Ultima Handicap Chase over three miles, one furlong.

Last Wednesday week, over two and a half miles at Wincanton, Maxwell made a winning first appearance on his recent purchase Monsieur Gibraltar who has traded yards over the past five years between Paul Nicholls and his current trainer, Irish-born Rose Loxton. A winner of three hurdle races and now five chases, the eight-year-old Spirit One gelding, who is out of a Rock Of Gibraltar mare, has also won eight point-to-points, three of them earlier this year under Harriet Tucker.

RESULT

There was an interesting result to the two-and-a-half-mile hunter chase run at Leicester on Tuesday, February 26th as this was won by the Italian-bred Asangy who, in a driving finish, just got the better of the Luke Harvey-saddled Drumlynn by a nose.

Trained by Richard Edwards for Howard Taylor and ridden by Peter Bryan, the seven-year-old Asangy, who won a trio of races on the flat in France as a three-year-old, is by the Irish-bred Gentlewave (a son of Monsun) out of the Irish-bred Art Naif (by Desert King). Following his French wins in the early part of 2015, he was purchased by T J Bloodstock for €220,000.

He didn’t appear again until a year later and, after four disappointing efforts, was sold to Taylor for just €1,600 at Doncaster in November 2017.