Venetia hoping for Chepstow success after Festival glory

VENETIA Williams had a splendid opening to the Festival with L’Homme Presse’s victory in the Brown Advisory 3m novice chase – which prompted thoughts of the Gold Cup next year – plus placings for Funambule Sivola and Frero Banbou.

Venetia, pictured – for all racing fans the first name is sufficient – has sent out more than 1,500 winners at a strike rate of 16 per cent, a terrific feat spanning 27 seasons. Her name was made by a wonderful hurdler called Lady Rebecca. She’d been bought for only 400 guineas, yet she won 13 of her 18 races for the yard between 1996 and 2001. Seven of them were at Cheltenham and four of those were Grade 1s. Two-and-a-half miles was her best trip, but in those days there was no suitable Festival race for her; neither a championship hurdle contest over that distance, nor any mares-only races.

Hence all Lady Rebecca’s wins there were between October and January.

Renowned for her horses’ ability to handle soft ground, which (despite Wednesday’s downpour) is increasingly rare at Cheltenham in March, there have been only half-adozen winners of Festival handicaps in all that time, and none since 2013 until this year.

Dismiss her runners at your peril this weekend. One of them, Supervisor, had three options but looks set to line up for the 4.45 at Chepstow on Sunday. That meeting is one of a nationwide series aimed at bringing in university students to provoke their interest in racing. They’ve been going for a year or two with the rather strange advertising slogan ‘Invades’, which will surely be rebranded in view of events elsewhere. There should be a youthful atmosphere at the track. A normal fixture takes place there on Thursday.

Tomorrow’s Kempton’s meeting is, in effect, a series of consolation races for horses who weren’t quite good enough to get into their desired Cheltenham races. Although the day after Cheltenham feels like after the Lord Mayor’s Show, the Midlands National at Uttoxeter invariably generates plenty of betting interest. The 2021 winner, J P McManus’s Time To Get Up, should be able to beat last year’s third and fourth, Final Nudge and Screaming Colours, again. A third of the field is out of the handicap due to the presence of Paul Nicholls’ classy veteran Yala Enki, who carries top weight. However, that enables stable companion Truckers Lodge to carry 11st 2lbs in his quest to repeat his win in this race in 2020. His latest run, over an inadequate three miles, showed he is coming to the boil.

In the preceding race, at 3.00, keep an eye on Irish raider Freedom To Dream. He was out of his depth in a Grade 1 last time but ran a respectable fourth. He will find life much easier in this handicap.

Devon trainer Nigel Hawke sends Theocrat all the way to Newcastle for the 4.50. He’ll be suited by the good going up there.

Spring and the turf flat racing season are getting closer and Bath’s first fixture is on Thursday 14 April. It’s the first of eight evening meetings there this year.