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Wedge hangs on by piece of elastic to keep Welsh National trophy in Wales
VICTORY hung not by a thread but a length of elastic as 5-2 favourite Secret Reprieve delivered for punters in the Coral Welsh Grand National at Chepstow.
The Evan Williams-trained sevenyear-old’s three-length margin was not just a triumph for his supporters, but for the durability of the National Hunt jockey as rider Adam Wedge had been the victim of two horror falls earlier in the day.
However, Wedge’s place on the market leader’s back was precarious for the closing stages of the threemile, six-furlong test – restaged from the abandoned meeting on December 27 – after the girth, securing the saddle and stirrups, had snapped.
This left the ‘overgirth’, secured by a piece of elastic, to prevent the partnership from unravelling.
“I was aware from the second-last that something wasn’t 100 per cent,” recalled the winning jockey. “I didn’t know my girth had gone, and that we were only being held on by the overgirth. Thankfully, everything stayed in place!”
Reflecting on falls from Evans’ pair Esprit Du Large and Clyne, Wedge said, with an understatement typical of his trade: “It’s a hard old game at times. We get thrown to the floor but winners like that keep us going.
“I said to Evan, ‘ It’s a good job I’ve been kept busy, because if I had time to get stiff it might have been a different outcome’.”
Potters Corner’s triumph for Glamorgan-based Christian Williams 12 months earlier had been the first time the trophy had stayed at home since Norther in 1965.
Norther was partnered on the gallops by Evan Williams’ late father
Rhys – a fact the old man was apt to remind his son.
Williams, who trains in the Vale of Glamorgan, laughed: “A few journalists said, ‘ He’ll be looking down on you.’ I said, ‘Let me tell you, that old bugger will be looking up at me!’ I hope it’s not too hot down there for him today!”
Secret Reprieve, easy winner of Chepstow’s Welsh Grand National Trial in December, could now be aimed at the Randox Health Grand National at Aintree on April 10.
Williams, who trains the bay for long-standing patrons William and Angela Rucker, added: “The race that really comes to mind is the National Hunt Chase at the [Cheltenham]
Festival, but that’s only because he’s a novice.
“The reality is that the Grand National would be high up on my list, but I’ll have to talk to Mr and Mrs Rucker and decide what way we want to go.”
Adagio proved anything but for the resurgent David Pipe in the Grade 1 Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle, outsprinting even- money hotpot Nassalam to earn a quote of 8-1 for the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.
“He’s got an engine,” said Pipe, who had used the race to determine whether Tom Scudamore’s mount would contest the Triumph Hurdle or the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the National Hunt Festival. “It will be the Triumph Hurdle now!”