By Peter Moore at Newbury Friday 28th February 2025
Horaces Pearl maintained his unbeaten start under rules by making it five wins in a row after taking the 2m 4 ½ f novices hurdle race on day one of the Bet Victor Weekend Racing Day at Newbury on Friday.
The Fergal O’brien seven-year-old proved a classic apart on his hurdles debut at Huntingdon in November after excelling in a Grade 2 bumper at Aintree at the end of last season.
Under Cnnor Brace, Horaces Pearl jumped the final flight well to go clear to win by 5 ½ lengths from Lud’or to make it five wins on the bounce.
The 254 miles roundtrip from Minehead proved very successful for Phillip Hobbs & Johnson White who picked up a double on the card through Kikijo and Wonderful Eagle.
Outsider of the four Kikijo gamely fought back when looked beaten to edge ahead of Bashers Reflection to get home by 4 ¾ lengths in the 2m 4f novices handicap chase before Michael Nolan bagged his double of the afternoon to steer Wonderful Eagle to victory in the finale of the day by ¾ length from Gamsters Guy.
King Of The Lake made it two wins from his last two runs after a comfortable victory in the opener.
Under Chad Bament, the seven-year-old was always travelling well before pulling away after the last flight to win going away and eased up near the line by ten lengths.
Give It To Me Oj who was a useful horse on the flat has been knocking at the door since running in juvenile hurdles.
Gary & Josh Moore have been looking for the ideal race for the four-year-old to open his campaign over the jumps.
Set off at 4-9 favourite, he jumped well around the 2m 1/2f trip aside from an error at the last before going on to win nicely by 3 ½ lengths.
Samuel Drinkwater saddled another couple of runners in the 2m 1/2f handicap chase and ended up with the winner and the third.
Rath Gaul Hill took the honours by just getting up to beat The Famous Five in a narrow finish by a neck with Sam Twiston- Davies in the plate with Ballybreeze a further eight and a half lengths behind.
The win made it three on the spin for Rath Gaul Hill despite not running for 315 days.