Relief for punters as the favourite takes Stratford's feature race
HORSE RACING
KING Cnut, trained in Hampshire by Chris Gordon and ridden by Tom Cannon, brought relief to punters after a run of beaten favourites at Stratford on Sunday afternoon when landing the feature Stratford Parks Handicap Chase over an extended two miles, writes David Hucker.
Course winner Deise Vu, who was sweating profusely before the start, adopted his usual front-running tactics, but was a spent force after jumping the penultimate fence where King Cnut went on.
Although Alexander The Grey tried to mount a challenge in the home straight, King Cnut proved too strong, recoding his second win over fences by seven lengths.
Outside of the feature race, the afternoon belonged to young jockey Jonjo O’Neill Jnr with a treble, taking him to a career total of 48 in his sixth season of riding.
It kicked off in the day’s longest race, the stratfordparks.co.uk Handicap Hurdle over an extended three and a quarter miles, when 9-2 shot His Dream came with a storming run to overhaul favourite Flying Verse, who had looked all over the winner when going clear after the last flight.
The Kings Baby made it a double for O’Neill Jnr when taking the Riverside Bar And Restaurant Mares' Handicap Chase, although the tactics were very different this time with Harry Whittington’s runner making all the running to see off the lightly-weighted Mrs Burbidge.
The final leg came in the concluding National Hunt Flat Race with Stony Stream, runner-up on both his starts to date, who headed the betting at odds-on.
O’Neill Jnr again made all the running, with Stony Stream fending off the challenge of Elton Jack, who ran with promise on just his second outing for Christian and Sophie Leech.
Dan Skelton’s four-time chase winner Zamparelli, who ran here in preference to a race over fences at Aintree on Friday evening, looked to have a good chance in the opening Stratford Parks Novices' Hurdle over two and three-quarter miles.
With outsider Whizz Bang a non-runner and closest market rival Finalshot withdrawn after unseating his jockey on the way to the start and galloping a full circuit of the track, Zamparelli was left with sole rival Full Time Party to beat.
The two raced side-by-side throughout, but it was Bridget Andrews who was first to send out the distress signals on Zamparelli rounding the home turn and they had no answer to the finishing kick of Full Time Party, who came home to record another win for trainer Rebecca Curtis and jockey Sean Bowen, successful with Ruthless Article in the opening race at Bangor-on-Dee the day before.
Disappointingly, just three of the 17 entries were declared for the novices' handicap chase and the race looked a match between Warwick scorer Kilcara, who was also entered later on the card, and Skelton’s Goodthyneaway, who was looking to add to his Plumpton success a week ago for the Rio Gold Racing Club.
But, neither could get past outsider Regulation, running in his 74th race and making his chasing debut at the age of ten, who was taken into the lead from the off by Bryony Frost, galloping and jumping well to beat Kilcara, who stumbled on landing at the final fence, by seven lengths.
Local rivals Olly Murphy and Skelton went head-to-head in the Riverside Bar And Restaurant Mares' Novices' Selling Hurdle.
Skelton ran Angel Of The North, his sole entry in the race, whereas Murphy was double-handed with Kahaleesi, owned by his father Aiden, and Nice To Sea, still a maiden on the flat after nine attempts and making her jumping debut.
The betting was headed, however, by Riviere Argentee, third in a mare’s handicap over the course on her last run, but she was the latest short-priced failure on what was becoming an afternoon of shocks, finishing only fourth to Angel Of The North, who had taken over the lead from Yamuna River going to the last and held the late challenge of Cold Fusion by a neck.
Despite her success, Angel Of The North, who was adding a jumps win to one on the flat, failed to attract a bid at the post-race auction.
