Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer Jamie Snowden (photographed) cannot wait for Chepstow’s Dragonbet Welsh Racing Festival next month - a fixture he reckons signals the start of the jumps season proper.
Snowden has been ticking along nicely over the summer, but the serious business is about to begin and the first major meeting he has in his sights is the three days of jumping Chepstow hosts from Friday 10th October to Sunday 12th October. The father of three has already identified a handful of potential runners for the races, which offer prize-money of more than £500,000.
“I think we could have maybe four run there,” he said. “The first of what you might call our winter horses, Idy Wood, won last week and he’ll probably go for the Silver Trophy, while Hope Rising is pencilled in for the £25,000 handicap hurdle for four-year-olds.
“Audacious Annie might want to run before Chepstow, but, if she does, the Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle could be on her agenda.
“Wendigo would be one of our better novice chasers this season. He’s coming along well and will be ready to run around that time, so the £40,000 Listed novice chase could be an option for him. It’s very likely he’ll have an entry in the race.”
Based just off the M4 in Lambourn in West Berkshire, Snowden is seen as an emerging force in jump racing and earned his first Grade 1 success at Aintree’s Grand National meeting in the spring when Julius Des Pictons landed the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle.
That sits on his CV alongside Cheltenham Festival triumphs with Present View (Rewards4Racing Novices' Handicap Chase) and You Wear It Well (Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle).
“This is like the season-opener and I think everyone likes to target it, and we’re no different,” he added. “We’ve been second, third and fourth in the Persian War, so it’s a race I’d really like to win and we’ve always taken nice, or potentially nice horses there; Ga Law was second at this fixture last year before he was runner-up in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
“Chepstow’s a great track, a very fair one, and I think having a three-day meeting now will be a good thing - the owners love going there.”
A pass for all three days costs just £39 and is available to buy on the track’s website, while the meeting also features the DragonBet Proud Sponsor Of The Welsh Champion Hurdle, which used to be run at Ffos Las.
Grace Harris, who trains not far from Chepstow, is much more focused on the flat these days and her fine campaign shows no signs of slowing down with her latest winner coming at Leicester last week.
Sent off 10-1 for a 5f handicap in the hands of Rossa Ryan, Over Spiced was close to the leaders and pounced late to provide Harris with her 17th winner of the season.
