Forest Chimes and What A Glance landed the feature races at Friday evening's all-hunter chase meeting at Stratford.
The Phil Rowley-trained Forest Chimes (9/2) won the £20,000 pointopoint.co.uk Champion Novices Hunters’ Chase for the John Corbet Cup, while What A Glance (12/1) landed the £22,000 Pertemps Network Champion Hunters’ Steeplechase for the Horse & Hound Cup. There was also a welcome return to winning ways for Famous Clermont, who formed the second leg of a double for freshly-crowned national women’s champion Izzie Marshall.
Recent Cheltenham hunters’ Chase winner Iskandar Pecos started favourite for the novices’ event, but the team behind the six-year-old expressed pre-race concern that the ground might prove quicker than ideal and so it proved. Huw Edwards had to niggle Iskandar Pecos from an early stage, and while he stuck doggedly to his task on the final circuit he was beaten three and a half lengths by Forest Chimes, who was a course winner in March.
Forest Chimes (Darren Andrews) on his way to victory in the pointtopoint.co.uk novices' hunters' chase
Rider Darren Andrews, wearing the colours of Diana Williams, said: “They [Rowley’s team] have looked after him and he’s rewarded them. The aim was the Aintree Foxhunters’ Chase this year, but we couldn’t get him qualified in time. Now he’s won twice at Stratford, and over a shorter trip last time, and we can focus on Aintree next season.” Williams’ daughter, Jane, the former national women’s champion, never rode in Aintree’s famous hunters’ chase, but she said: “I didn’t have a suitable horse, but this one jumps so well he’s made for it.”
The winner's trophy was presented by Nick Wilson, one of his final duties as head of the Point-to-Point Racing Company’s Wellingborough office. Wilson retires at the end of the month to be replaced by Phil Lodge.
What A Glance’s end-of-season form has been impressively upwards after point-to-point defeats in March and April, albeit by Ihandaya and Deise Aba (twice). He then romped home at Cheltenham from subsequent Kelso winner Yippee Ki Yay and last night landed one of hunt racing’s greatest prizes.
Winning rider Murray Dodd said: “He’s done it well in the end, but half-way down the back I thought he was going to come off the bridle. Then we got into a bit of traffic on the bend in, it slowed me down and was probably the best thing that could happen. Once in the home straight there was so much left. He’s blossomed late – he’s a different horse to the one I rode in a point-to-point at the end of last season.”
What A Glance (Murray Dodd) is followed back to the winners' enclosure by Tom Britten
Thomas Britten, who is based in Shropshire and trains nine-year-old What A Glance for his grandmother, Ann Taylor, said: “The way he won at Cheltenham we thought ‘Why not come here and give it a go – it’s good prize money’, but I would have been delighted if he finished in the first six. To win the way he did was unbelievable.
“He won first time out when he was with David Dennis, but in recent seasons he’s tended to win at the back-end. He’s a son of Passing Glance and they do improve with age, and we’ve got the trip right now. He’s just beaten a Cheltenham Foxhunter winner [Premier Magic, 7th] and Willie Mullins’ horse [Annamix, 6th] was third at Aintree so he’s looking up to Festival standard now.”
Just one favourite won on the card, and that was Famous Clermont (7/4) who was saddled by Dorset’s Chris Barber in the Ladies’ Hunters’ Chase, and ridden for the first time by Marshall. Racing keenly, Famous Clermont looked fresh and well after a disappointing recent trip to Ireland, and with a solid round of jumping his class shone out as he beat Imperial Esprit and Shantou Flyer by three lengths and four and three-quarters of a length.
Barber said: “He’s so talented and he jumped and travelled well. He’s taken Izzie for a bit of a ride, but that’s partly my fault. He came back from Ireland having had a hard race looking really tucked up and I thought we’ll have to turn him out in a field now. However, we had been hoping for better ground, so we decided to wait a week, and then another week, and then he absolutely flourished. It now looks like I’ve done too little with him and he’s come here really fresh and gassy.
A smile breaks on Izzie Marshall's face as Famous Clermont crosses the line
“The ground was too soft in Ireland. We walked it the day before and it was beautiful good ground, but then we had heavy rain from 5pm to 10am the next day. If the race had been in England we would have withdrawn.”
Marshall said: “That is definitely one of the classiest horses I’ve sat on in their prime. I was a passenger the whole way round. Once I hit the front [at the sixth fence] he settled and was in a rhythm at his cruising speed and so I could forget about everyone behind.”
Famous Clermont’s win completed a double for Marshall, who in the opening Jumping For Fun ‘Restricted’ Hunters’ Chase scored on the very tall chesnut Learntalot (9/1), trained by her soon-to-be father-in-law, Alan Hill. In a race that summarised the recent battle for the women riders’ championship, Marshall narrowly held off the late challenge of Gina Andrews riding Padjoes Legacy, with Well P in third.
Hill said: “He won on the first day of the season, but I think I’ve been campaigning him on the wrong ground. He was previously with Olly Murphy who felt the horse liked soft, but when Izzie rode him on better ground last time out she said he seemed to act well on it. Tonight he jumped better and moved better, so there has been some trainer error, but luckily I own the horse.
“I watched the race with David Kemp who said ‘It looks like you’ve got an open point-to-pointer’ and I said, ‘No, it looks like the wife [licensed trainer Lawney] has got a summer jumper’.”
Trainer Alan Hill with the restricted race winner Learntalot
The Peter Wright Over And Out Handicap Hunters’ Chase, named in honour of the outgoing chief executive of the Point-to-Point Authority, was won by a resurgent Envious Editor (9/2), who beat the 100/30 favourite Rebel Dawn Rising by a length. Formerly a very smart hunter for Joe O’Shea, the winner scored in the colours of Shropshire’s Alastair Crow, was trained by his wife Caroline and ridden by son Henry, having been leased to the family by Peter Clifton.
Caroline endured a car crash resulting in multiple injuries earlier this year, which put a hold on their ambitions for Envious Editor. She said: “Henry loves the horse, who has been a pleasure to train. We’ve had lots of ups and downs through the season [the horse had run just twice, both times in May], but we got there in the end.” Henry said: “It was very straightforward, but when you’ve got a horse like that it’s easy,” while Clifton said: “It’s great when a plan comes together. He had had a lot of hard races and needed a change, and when Henry said he’d like to take him I thought why not? I’ll take him back now and decide upon a plan.”
Consistent Kaproyale (17/2) has almost forgotten how to finish out of the first two in races, and he duly scored again, just, in the White Swan Hotel Hunters’ Chase over 2m1f, a contest he won last year. Charlie Case was in the saddle this time as the Fran Poste-trained nine-year-old beat Cat Tiger and Mix Of Clover by a nose and a neck.