Rebecca Curtis (photographed) was thwarted in her bid to win the Irish Gold Cup over the weekend but had reason to smile at Chepstow’s meeting last week when Keltype annihilated his rivals.
The Pembrokeshire-based Curtis had planned to run her stable star Haiti Couleurs in Ireland but the weather meant the trip over was set to be too exhausting for the Welsh Grand National hero, so he stayed in his stable. He has the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National on his agenda but is set to appear beforehand on Saturday in Newbury’s Denman Chase.
The nine-year-old runs in the colours of Simon Prowting, James Conyers and Dave McDermot, who own the promising Keltype. A French-bred gelding, he cost Curtis £40,000 at a sale two years ago and made his debut at Chepstow in December.
On that occasion he shaped with promise by finishing an encouraging fourth but took a major step forward last Tuesday. In the hands of top conditional Freddie Gordon, the youngster made all and galloped on relentlessly to draw 15 lengths clear of his opposition.
The feature race of the day was the 2m novice chase, which went to Stencil, who was representing the sport’s biggest owner JP McManus. He is trained to the north of Paris by Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm and made the long journey worthwhile.
Favourite for the Fred Winter at last year’s Cheltenham Festival, he is blessed with a touch of class and demonstrated that under Johnny Burke, who settled his mount towards the rear before making headway five fences from home.
The pair led approaching the last and powered on to win by six and a half lengths. Another performance of note came from Thewoodcorner, who hails from the Lambourn yard of leading trainer Nicky Henderson.
He ran all right at Sandown on his British debut in December and improved to win for Welsh jockey James Bowen.
There was also racing at Ffos Las last week and Bowen’s brother Sean struck on Jaccours in the maiden hurdle, while in-form Carmarthen rider Ben Jones registered a double on The Hawkstonian, whom Jeremy Clarkson is involved with, and Sparkling Duke.
Vale of Glamorgan trainer Evan Williams also got in on the act, landing the 3m novice handicap chase with Followango, who was ridden by his daughter Isabel. On the flat, Grace Harris, who is based near Chepstow, had a winner at
Wolverhampton in the shape of Sisters In The Sky - a credit to the trainer since joining her yard three years ago.
The next racing at Chepstow is on Friday 13th February.
