Friend aiming to fire

Chase

Mike Smith unveils an interesting new recruit to his Ayrshire yard in the shape of Cooper’s Friend in the feature race at Kelso today.

The former Charlie Longsdon-trained sevenyear-old, who changed hands for £11,000 at Doncaster Sales last month, faces ten rivals in the Children’s Immunology Trust Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase.

Galston-based Smith said: “Obviously, we’ve not had him all that long, but he’s quite a nice horse. It remains to be seen if he can cope with soft ground and he has a big weight on his back.

“Stephen Mulqueen takes off a handy 5lb and it all helps. His recent form over two and a half miles is good and Charlie said to me that he wanted further. Everybody knows my horses have been taking time to come to hand, but things are looking a bit better now.”

Among the opposition to Cooper’s Friend are a trio of raiders from Nick Alexander’s Kinneston yard – Calivigny, Marlee Massie and Here’s To Harry.

James Ewart landed the corresponding race 12 months ago with Lord Wishes and the Langholm trainer bids for another success with the Will Kennedy-ridden Ascot De Bruyere.

The Kilco (International) Ltd Handicap Chase is dominat- ed by Scottish horses, with all bar two of the ten-strong field trained north of the border.

Hat-trick-seeking Blue Kascade makes the short journey from Sandy Thomson’s Lambden stable and could take all the beating after fluent wins at Musselburgh and Wetherby.

Meanwhile, at Southwell, Clubland can banish memories of a chastening experience at the track on his most recent outing there when he returns to Nottinghamshire for the Betway Sprint Handicap.

Despite having been the subject of plenty of market support in the build-up to a six-furlong handicap on 13 December, little went right for the seven-year-old son of Red Clubs.

Clubland was slowly away under Tom Marquand, and never really recovered from that, finishing seventh of 11.

Before that, though, he had been running pretty well in three tries on the Newcastle Tapeta, so all hope is most certainly not lost, and a year-long barren spell has left him wellhandicapped .