Umberleigh
Alice Stevens’ triumph crowns her season as lady novice champion, while a recent sales buy proves her worth
ALICE STEVENS stormed to victory in the ladies’ open, riding the Francesca Nimmo-trained Rendezvous Peak to claim the season’s lady novice riders’ title.
“I’ve wanted to win the novice title ever since I started raceriding so this is a dream come true,” said Alice. “I’m such a lucky girl to have the support of Fran and her partner Charlie, who made sure I had enough rides to win the title.”
The campaign to win the title started late in the season.
“It was only in April that I thought we had a crack. There were points where I thought there was no way it would happen. Today, Charlie said go out and dictate the race, and that it would be better to lose having been too positive than kick myself for not attacking — so I went out and set the pace,” she added.
The Boola Bee had a convincing win in the open maiden under Kieren Buckley, finishing six lengths ahead of Buochas Le Dia (Byron Moorcroft). The winning jockey and his brother, Tom, bought the mare three weeks ago at Doncaster sales.
“She’s barely 16hh but is probably the best jumper I’ve sat on. I didn’t push her too much today as she gets keen and wants two miles rather than three, so I didn’t want her to go too soon. She is quite feisty so I took her down to the start on her own to keep her relaxed,” said Kieren.
“We’ve been training her alone which she seems to prefer. Tom and I both work for [National Hunt trainer] Nigel Hawke full-time, so it’s handy as we can train her on her own in our lunch break,” added Kieren.
Charlie Price was first past the post in the restricted, riding the Tim Vaughan-trained and owned Midnight Queen.
“Everyone wanted to make the running so I sat midfield and knew she would have plenty of running left. She isn’t the biggest mare but is tough and was foot perfect today,” said Charlie.
The 20-year-old jockey only started riding four years ago. “I always wanted to ride and went to the British Racing School before spending six months racing in New Zealand, and then started working for Tim.”