Tag: steeplechasing

Musselburgh’s richest meeting of the year under Starter’s Orders

Musselburgh Racecourse’s richest racing festival of the year in under Starter’s Orders with an impressive £430,000 on offer over the bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials weekend.

On Saturday (1 February) with £230,000 in prize money on offer, the £100,000 bet365 Scottish Champion Chase takes centre stage at the six-card meeting.

And if the East Lothian course plays its cards right, the BHA have indicated that in time this 2m 4 furlong handicap chase could be elevated to Listed status alongside other Class 1 event the bet365 Scottish Triumph Hurdle.

Scottish-owned The Kalooki Kid heads the betting in the Champion Chase (2.50pm). The Nicky Richards-trained gelding, who carries the colours of Kirkcaldy businessman Eddie Melville, has been raised 7lbs for an impressive strike at Doncaster in December.

Last year’s winner Corrigeen Rock defends his crown with Milnathort-based trainer Lucinda Russell also set to saddle Traprain Law. Minella Drama, trained by Donald McCain, is top-weight on a BHA mark of 150 while Marble Sands, the winner of last year’s Frodon Novices’ Chase, represents joint-trainers David Killahena and Graeme McPherson.

Paul Nicholls, who has a tremendous record at the Scottish Cheltenham Trials, is set to be to have runners from his Somerset stable on both days. The 14-time champion trainer is bidding for a hat-trick of wins in the opening race, the bet365 Scottish Triumph Hurdle (1.42pm) and he relies on once-raced €135,000 purchase Nardaran, who is prominent in the market along with Maitre En Science, trained by his nephew and former assistant Harry Derham.

Nicholls, who last year enjoyed five winners over the two days at Musselburgh, could again be the one to beat in the bet365 Scottish County Hurdle with Afadil, a previous winner of the Scottish Triumph Hurdle, bidding to repeat his victory of twelve months ago. A wide-open race sees Dundee United director Jimmy Fyffe double-handed with Florida Dreams (Nicky Richards) and Maghlaak (Adrian Keatley).

Sunday’s feature race of a seven-card meeting with prize money totalling £200,000 is the £75,000 bet365 Edinburgh National Handicap Chase over a marathon 3m 7f (2.25pm)

Top-weight King Turgeon could be an interesting runner for his West Country trainer David Pipe as his three wins in the autumn included a strike over the Grand National fences at Aintree. Last year’s hero Iris Oirr (Lucinda Russell) and Magna Sam (Alistair Ralph), the 2023 winner, are also among the entries.

Classy Flat recruit Wise Eagle, winner of the 2023 Queen’s Cup at Musselburgh, is a fascinating entry for the bet365 Scottish Supreme Novices’ Hurdle for Northumberland handler Adam Nicol.

In the bet365 Frodon Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase (1.55pm), Benson, successful over hurdles at the track’s New Year’s Day meeting in 2023 and 2024, has been pencilled in by Borders trainer Sandy Thomson and he could be joined by Breizh River, trained by former jockey Paul Robson.

Musselburgh’s February racing festival is long established an important staging post for leading trainers looking to compete at the famous Cheltenham and Aintree festivals in the Spring and the coastal track has hosted some great prospects over the years, with many of the country’s top trainers happy to make the trip north to take on Scotland’s best home-trained horses.

With seven races screened lived on ITV, racecourse general manager Bill Farnsworth is delighted with the quality of runners. He said: “Each year we aim to attract the most progressive racehorses and the country’s leading trainers and this year’s bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials will not disappoint.

“The track is in excellent condition, we have no weather concerns with a forecast of dry and sunny spells, so the stage is set for an excellent weekend of first class national hunt racing. We hope racing fans will take advantage of the opportunity to get up close to the next generation of potential Cheltenham and Aintree champions.”

Gates open on Saturday at 11.30am with the first race scheduled for 1.42pm and Six Nations rugby fans will not miss out with the Scotland v Italy match screened in all bars. On Sunday gates also open at 11.30am with the first race scheduled for 1.22pm

For further information and to book tickets visit www.musselburgh-racecourse.co.uk

Musselburgh to host its most valuable jumps meeting

£430,000 bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials

Musselburgh Racecourse’s first ever £100,000 jumps race will be the centre piece of the £430,000 bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials next weekend which will attract some of the country’s best trainers and horses.

Long established as the premier trials for horses preparing for a tilt at the Cheltenham Festival and Aintree’s Grand National festive, the East Lothian course is in excellent condition for welcoming aspiring champions on 3 and 4 February.

Recently retired Frodon (King George VI Chase), Mighty Thunder (Scottish Grand National) and Greaneteen (Celebration Chase and Tingle Creek) are just three fine examples of Grade 1 champions who featured at previous Scottish Cheltenham Trials festivals.

Musselburgh Racecourse general manager, Bill Farnsworth, said: “Jumps fans will struggle to find a better prospect next weekend than the bet365 Scottish Cheltenham Trials, which is one of the most ambitious programmes ever staged at Musselburgh.

“The £100,000 Edinburgh National (Saturday) is our richest ever jumps race and at over 4 miles it fits nicely in to the stayers’ programme for trainers eyeing up the Grand National and the Scottish Grand National.”

The same seven fixture card also features the £25,000 bet365 Frodon Novices’ Handicap Chase and the £30,000 bet365 Scottish County Hurdle, with ITV covering the first three races live and going better on Sunday with the first five contests broadcast.

On the second day of the festival Musselburgh debuts a new race, the £80,000 bet365 Scottish Champion Handicap Chase, which is aimed at the top two-and-a-half mile handicap chasers.

Farnsworth added: “We are excited to see the entries for this new race and also on the Sunday we have one of our most popular fixtures, the £40,000 bet365 Scottish Triumph Hurdle, which is Musselburgh’s only Class 1 race and is a proper test for the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham.

“This weekend is by far the most valuable fixture yet staged at Musselburgh so we are expecting it will catch the attention of trainers the length and breadth of the country and we anticipate quantity and quality in the entries.”

Gate open on both days at 11.30am and provisional times for the first races are 1.40pm on Saturday and 1.20pm Sunday with the last race on both days at 4.35pm.

For more information and to book tickets visit www.musselburgh-racecourse.co.uk

Under starter’s orders for the greatest show on Earth

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The crocuses are out in a riot of colour, daffodils stretch up to greet the watery sunshine and the days are getting longer and warmer. Yes, winter’s over and spring has finally sprung – and for thousands of National Hunt fans that can mean only one thing: the Cheltenham Festival, the greatest equine show on Earth!

For four frenetic days in March, this genteel and reserved Gloucestershire spa town is transformed into a vibrant, buzzing cauldron of noise, colour and excitement. For lovers of the jump racing game Cheltenham’s Prestbury Park is Mecca and the Festival is the climax to the jump season.

Race meetings have been held at this natural amphitheatre in the shadow of the Cotswolds for over a century, and the Festival itself has continued to grow and grow in size and in stature. Tens of thousands will make the annual pilgrimage against next week, with millions more television viewers joining them in spirit.

Cheltenham’s allure? Quite simply, it’s the greatest race meting on the planet. The races over the four days of the Festival are the most competitive in the jump racing calendar, contested by the outstanding horses and top jockeys from the UK, Ireland and yes, the rest of the world too. The unique nature of the course, with it’s undulations and stiff uphill finish, is the supreme test of horse and jockey. Courage, stamina, speed and agility – qualities that are all needed in abundance and if there’s a weakness, if there’s a chink in your armour then cruel Cheltenham will surely find you out.

The rewards for success, however, are considerable. For an owner, the exhilaration of having a Cheltenham Festival winner is the ultimate, the pinnacle, the Holy Grail – and that’s whether you own one horse in a tiny wee stable up North or you have a huge team of horses housed in the finest stables in England and across the Irish Sea. Grand National aside, there’s nothing like a Cheltenham Festival winner. For punters, too, a winner at Cheltenham is always that little bit sweeter – and, given the competitive nature of the racing (particularly those impenetrable handicaps!), the starting prices tend to be that bit more generous too!

National Hunt racing is egalitarian; it’s still a sport, and it feels like a sport: a country pursuit where the super-rich and the not-so-rich, the amateur and the professional rub shoulders and get along just fine, united in equine admiration. The joy of being there to soak up that unique atmosphere – and maybe even picking a Cheltenham winner too – transcends class and social status.

And unlike the parallel universe of flat racing, where £ multi-million‘superstars’ burn brightly for a few races and quickly retire to stud, the often unsung stars of the National Hunt game keep coming back to enthral and entertain us, race after race, season after season – health and fitness permitting. No, you can keep your cosseted, namby pamby Prima Donnas; give me those brave, battling grizzled old steeplechasers any day.

So we’re almost there – the clock’s ticking down to the almighty Cheltenham roar that marks the tapes going up to start the opening race on Tuesday. Will we see another Golden Miller, a new Arkle or a Desert Orchid? Cheltenham invariably produces a new hero, another fairy tale. And has the wretched winter weather wreaked havoc with training preparations, handing the initiative to Irish raiders? Can Quevega create history by winning the Mare’s Hurdle for an incredible sixth time on Tuesday? Can Big Buck’s come back and regain his World Hurdle title on Thursday? And is Friday’s Gold Cup really a head-to-head between Bobs Worth and Silviniaco Conti, or can an unheralded outsider beat the pair to take National Hunt’s blue riband? You just don’t know – the delicious uncertainty of Cheltenham make the occasion what is: pure spectacle, drama and theatre, delight and despair with more ups and downs than Prestbury Park itself.

For the punter, winners as always will be hard to find but, win or lose (and let’s face it, it’s usually lose!) I can hardly wait. The excitement’s building, so strap yourself in and hang on to your hat – we’re in for a bumpy ride!

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The Cheltenham Festival 11 – 14 March 2014

For further information visit www.cheltenham.co.uk