Wetherby’s two-day bet365 Charlie Hall Chase Meeting (Friday and Saturday, 1st & 2nd) sees the Jumping season move up a few significant gears, with £260,000 in prize money on offer, while Doncaster hosts the traditional climax to the British Flat season on Saturday, 9th, including presentations to the nation’s leading owner, trainer, jockey and apprentice rider.
All roads lead to Wetherby, as some of the best chasers in the business are set to line up in the bet365 Charlie Hall Chase on the first Saturday this month. This prestigious £100,000 Grade 2 contest over three miles and one furlong remembers a famous Yorkshire trainer, Charlie Hall, who was based at nearby Towton. This race is seen as a stepping stone for some of the leading contenders in the Jumping game regarding future big-race honours and should attract a top-notch line-up. Last year’s winner, Silviniaco Conti went on to win the Grade 1 Betfair Chase at Haydock Park and compete in The Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Saturday’s seven-race programme also features another Grade 2 contest, The John Smith’s Hurdle (won last year by the brilliant but enigmatic Tidal Bay), a £36,500 race which is sure to include progressive staying hurdlers which could go on to compete in The World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March. Another highlight on a classy Saturday is a Listed hurdle contest for fillies and mares over the extended two miles, won last year by Une Artiste, trained at Lambourn in Berkshire by the champion trainer of last season, Nicky Henderson.
A pair of Listed races are the highlights on the Friday at Wetherby, with precocious young hurdlers taking part in The Weatherbys Hamilton Insurance Wensleydale Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle for three-year-olds and The bet365 Handicap Chase over fences.
The 2013 British Flat season on turf concludes in style at Doncaster the following Saturday, with Richard Hughes in pole position to retain the jockeys’ championship – a title he won for the first time last year. He leads the way from three-times former champion jockey, Ryan Moore.
Richard Hannon is attempting to win his fourth Trainers’ Championship; the Marlborough-based handler has trained over 200 winners, but it could be a close call come the 9th November, with Aidan O’Brien, who is based at Ballydoyle in Ireland in close pursuit, after winning the Group 1 Ladbrokes St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster in September with Leading Light. This title is decided on prize money accrued over the season. Incidentally, Yorkshire-based trainers Mark Johnston and Richard Fahey have both accumulated won more than £2 million in prize money during the Flat season, to be third and fourth respectively in the list. Hambleton-based Kevin Ryan has hit the £1 million mark, while another of the county’s trainers, David O’Meara is poised to do so.
There’s very much a Yorkshire interest in the outcome of the Apprentice Jockeys’ championship, with Jason Hart right in the mix to follow last year’s champion from the White Rose county, Amy Ryan, who created racing history when being the first female to be the outright top apprentice rider in the UK (Hayley Turner shared the title in 2005).
The battle for the Sky Bet trophies presented to the leading trainer and jockey on the Yorkshire courses during the Flat season, look like going down to the wire. Danny Tudhope is the leader in the riders’ category, closely pursued by Graham Gibbons, Paul Mulrennan and Silvestre de Sousa. It looks like being even closer in the contest to be the top trainer on the county’s tracks, as David O’Meara and Richard Fahey are going toe-to-toe for the Yorkshire bragging rights.
The action on the track at Doncaster features The Betfred November Handicap Stakes over one mile and a half, offering prize money of £65,000 with strong support from a couple of valuable Listed races with increased prize money – The Gillies Fillies’ Stakes (£40,000) and The Wentworth Stakes (£37,000). This day also sees the Final Round of the inaugural Go Racing in Yorkshire Future Stars Apprentice Series, the culmination of a competition for talented young riders on the Yorkshire courses which began at Doncaster in March.
Redcar’s season on the Flat concludes on Tuesday, 5th, prior to the climax of the campaign at Doncaster. Racing over Jumps at Wetherbycontinues with a meeting on Saturday, 16th – ‘totepool Day’ incorporating the annual CIU Charity Raceday at the popular West Yorkshire Jumps venue, which is also in action on Wednesday, 27th (‘Countryside Day’) A new season over Jumps at Doncaster begins onFriday, 29th.