Our opening meeting of 2023 is this Thursday 5th January. We have seven races from 1pm. Tickets are just £15 in advance and £19.50p on the day. There are 67 runners so a competitive afternoon of racing is in store.
There were double Williams doubles on Saturday, a day of six Welsh winners.
Evan Williams and Adam Wedge were in the Uttoxeter winners enclosure twice. Henry Box Brown broke his maiden at the tenth attempts in a 2m hurdle, looking like the winner early in the home straight only to face a determined challenge from a lightly-weighted rival. He was headed on the run-in but rallied gamely to finish a neck in front. The pair finished 34 lengths ahead of their opponents.
An hour later stablemate Can You Call, bearing the Rucker colours, was a much easier winner. Relishing the heavy going in the 2m4f hurdle, he capitalised on a handicap rating nine pounds below his chase mark.
At Warwick Lorcan Williams, who has been doing so well on Paul Nicholls’ horses when Harry Cobden is riding elsewhere, rode two winners for the thriving Ben Pauling yard. Unit Sixtyfour won a 2m chase easily, his first success over fences, and with a lowly rating of 90 before this he should be able to add to score again. Later that afternoon Mister Watson won a 2m4f chase in which only four of the nine starters completed. All his best form has been on soft or heavy, and this race was run 49 seconds slower than the standard time.
There was more Williams joy between those races when Lord Snootie won the long distance hurdle for Christian Williams and Jack Tudor. On the face of it, running over almost seven furlongs further than his previous three outings was an eye catching ploy, but prior to that the horse had stayed on well to win a point-to-point.
The Warwick card concluded with Richard Patrick (photographed) driving Henry Daly’s Bowenspark to a hard-fought victory by a neck in the bumper. He successfully defied a penalty, which is a rare occurrence. The fact that he is owned by the executors of the late Trevor Hemmings makes him a very good long-term prospect.
Patrick and Daly combined again to take the second race at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day with Rapper. Down to his last winning mark, he won the 3m2f chase by eight lengths to confirm the fine form of the stable, whose Blenkinsop was impressive at Newbury 24 hours earlier.
Lorcan Williams rode his third winner of the weekend in the Cheltenham bumper by steering the 8/15 favourite Wrappedupinmay, trained by Paul Nicholls, to a runaway 24 length victory.
David Probert ended 2022 with 144 winners. That was his second best year – he amassed 169 in 2021, which will be very difficult to surpass – but in terms of prize money this was by far his most successful year, earning over £2.7 million. He rode 758 different horses for 144 trainers in 1,146 races.
His biggest earner was, unusually, a loser; £345,000 came from Hoo Ya Mal’s second place in the Derby. Otherwise, riding Sandrine regularly for Alpinista’s owner Kirsten Rausing yielded £288,000 and the Doncaster Cup winner Coltrane a further £255,000.
