By Peter Moore at Newbury Wednesday 14th January
Fire Warning made the perfect start for Nicky Henderson when making all in the second division of the 2m½f novice hurdle at Newbury on Wednesday afternoon.
The five-year-old justified 8-11 favouritism on his British debut with a cosy success under James Bowen, leading all the way to win by three lengths from Bespoke Tailor.
Running in the familiar colours of Susannah and Rich Ricci, the grey ran three times in France.
Henderson said “”It’s a good start and he’s got a future in front of him. He’s a very nice and straightforward horse who looks like a chaser in the making. I think we’ll have a lot of fun with him.”
But Henderson is keen on getting another run under his belt before future spring targets.
He said: “I’m not sure he wouldn’t want another half a mile anyway. They didn’t go over quickly, and he was only making the running because there wasn’t any other pace. It wasn’t the plan, but he wants a good, even gallop.
“Aintree might not be a bad idea, but we’ll see what Rich wants to do. He’s got a lot of other horses. We’ve only got one soldier to go to war with, whereas he’s got quite a team of them in Ireland.”
Sober Glory returned to winning ways after a disappointing fourth in Listed company to claim his fifth win in six starts.
The Phillip Hobbs & Johnson White trained six-year-old six-year-old took full advantage of a drop in class to win division one of the 2m½f novice hurdle, prompting connections to consider a return to Listed level next month.
Joint-trainer Philip Hobbs said: “Everything is possible at this stage. He’ll likely run in a Listed novice hurdle at Exeter [February 8], and that’ll give us the right timing. If he went and won that well, then you’d have to think about the spring festivals.”
Sober Glory suffered his first defeat last month, and Hobbs added: “There was no reason for that disappointment. He scoped well and his bloods were fine, and the physio couldn’t find anything wrong. It was a big surprise because he ran miles below par for no reason, but they can all have an off day.”
Panic Attack justified odds of 1-4 with a comfortable 14 length victory in the main race of the day, the Alder Demain & Akers Mares Chase. A Listed Class 1 race.
Leading from the front, there was never any doubt in the result with Harry Skelton taking affairs from the front to dictate the pace to back up her excellent victories in both the Chgeltenham and Coral Gold Cup’s.
The feature on her previous victories was her jumping, but today she put on a master class of jumping to leave her owner Bryan Drew waxing lyrical.
Drew said after the race she will be aiming for the Mares Chase at Cheltenham in March and didn’t rule out the possibility of a crack at the Grand National in April.
Trainer Jane Williams has a habit of raiding southern tracks from her Devon base and once again she came up trumps after saddling Matiwo to take the 2m ½ f junior hurdle by seven lengths from Apollon Forlonge.
Kim Bailey brought up a hundred winners after Top Target was victorious in the 2m 7 1/2f chase under Tom Bellamy.
C’est Different made it four wins in a row after leading over the final flight to go on and score by five and a quarter lengths for Sam Thomas with Dylan Johnston doing the steering.
Chris Gordon’ s yard are in ctacking form at the moment and look to have a nice horse in General Briar who backed up his win at Plumpton last month by making all to win by two and a quarter lengths in the finale on the card, with the strong chance the seven-year-old will return back to the scene of his success again next month.