By Peter Moore at Kempton Park Saturday 16th March 2024
The Skelton family have had a week they will remember for the rest of their lives after a successful Cheltenham that yielded four wins and a second apiece from trainer Dan and jockey Harry.
They continued the winning formula with success on Saturday on Unibet Jump Saturday when Boombawn took the Read Nicky Henderson’s Exclusive Unibet Blog Handicap Hurdle race, a Class 2 over 2m 5f.
Henderson, was a relived man in the winners enclosure after the opening race on the card when he saddled his first winner since 2nd March when Persian Time under Nico de Boinville got up on the line to win by a neck from Soul Icon.
The Seven Barrows yard has been under a cloud with horses not running to form which is something that Henderson can’t explain.
It was a welcome return back to winning ways with Henderson saying after Persian Time’s victory that he would hardly be running any horses in the next week, hoping to eventually get back to normal service.
Leading the race to be champion jockey, Harry Cobden notched up another success when the Paul Nicholls trained Outlaw Peter beat course specialist Flegmatic by a length and a quarter in the 2m4f handicap chase.
Top weight Wyenot made it three wins this season for Henry Daly with Alice Stevens on board to win the 2m novices hurdle.
Another English trainer who enjoyed the Cheltenham festival was Ben Pauling with Slipway adding to his successes this week. The nine year old was given a super ride by Ben Jones who is having his most successful season ever, to win by four lengths from Egbert.
One of the most prosperous syndicates around at the moment is the Noel Fehily Racing Syndicates. Along with David Cross, the pair have an uncanny knock of buying some very good horses and syndicating them.
Another one of those to add to the list is the seven year old Kamsinas who took the 2m 5f novices hurdle with Jack Hogan on board to give Fergal O’Brien a deserved welcome winner after what has been a very challenging week for the yard.