Somersby helps Henrietta Knight find way along road to recovery. The leading players were out in force at Kempton yesterday, but all to no avail. On a day when a winner or two might have soothed some pre-Hennessy nerves, the honours went instead to trainers coming in from the cold.

Henrietta Knight wore the widest smile. Her travails reached a zenith on Saturday before Cross Kennon ended a six-month drought when winning at Ludlow on Monday. That proved a welcome portent for Somersby, who won the opener with far more authority than implied by a winning margin of just under three lengths lengths.

He didn’t disappoint us, was Knight’s opening gambit in the winner’s circle. The same cannot be said for many of her runners this season, but the curse, whatever form it took, has now lifted. To this day Knight has no idea why she suffered such a barren run.

They all seemed very well at home but were stopping as though they were shot two furlongs out, the trainer reflected. After a while we went back to our original feed, based on oats. Maybe it suits us better to stay with traditional ways, not modern ways.
Somersby is certainly a traditional store. A big, well-balanced horse, he also has much to live up to. He runs for Camilla Radford, the owner of Racing Demon, and was bought – like Racing Demon and Best Mate – from the renowned Costello academy in Ireland.

Somersby was handled confidently by Dominic Elsworth, who went on to complete a treble when he revived the flagging fortunes of Paul Webber. Only one of Webber’s previous 18 runners had reached the frame before this quickfire double.

Elsworth produced Laskari late to win the two-mile handicap chase, having earlier made plenty of use of One Gulp in the Starlight Lapland Mares’ Hurdle over an extended three miles. One Gulp’s stamina proved decisive after Amber Brook loomed up going to the final flight. But while the latter’s effort petered out, One Gulp pinged the last with her ears pricked.

One Gulp is the apple of her owner/breeder’s eye – and there have been several for Bobby McAlpine to savour down the decades. His fervent hope is that the five-year-old might deliver a first Cheltenham Festival winner since River Ceiriog, trained by Nicky Henderson, won him the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle 22 years ago.

River Ceiriog’s win was a huge surprise, McAlpine said. Before the race I remember Peter O’Sullevan asking us how to pronounce his name and Nicky told him: ‘Don’t worry, you won’t have to mention it’. Henderson was preoccupied yesterday by his involvement with the Starlight Children’s Foundation, which Kempton commemorated.

However, with the Hennessy looming, it won’t have escaped his attention that none of his six runners troubled the judge. It was also a barren afternoon for Barry Geraghty, who has elected to ride Punjabi at Newcastle instead of the Henderson armada at Newbury on Saturday. In Geraghty’s absence, Henderson hands Andrew Tinkler the Hennessy ride aboard Oedipe.

As expected, Henderson has turned to Tony McCoy for some competitive races on the supporting card. The champion jockey will partner Petit Robin for the Lambourn trainer in the two-mile chase, and Duc De Regniere in a Long Distance Hurdle that is expected to feature the return of Inglis Drever, the three-time World Hurdle winner.

Posted on November 27th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Horse Racing news