Hurdling ace’s death casts a long shadow

TRAGEDY struck at the Evan Williams stable on Friday when Silver Streak, Wales’s best hurdler for years, was put down after suffering a serious injury on the gallops.

He was third in the 2019 Champion Hurdle and won the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle at Kempton in 2020.

He cost 45,000 euros as a yearling, which began to look expensive when he ran seven times on the flat for Ann Duffield, managing two seconds and a third.

As a three-year-old he was switched to hurdles in the autumn and ran respectably. That upturn prompted his sale for £25,000 to Les Fell, a Yorkshire beef farmer who already had a horse with Williams.

Silver Streak’s first run for the Vale of Glamorgan handler was at Taunton in December 2016, and he trotted up. Next time out he was sent to Musselburgh and he won again.

In the next few years he won the valuable Swinton Hurdle at Haydock and the Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las prior to his Cheltenham Champion Hurdle third. In addition to eight wins he was second or third 14 times, mostly at the highest level, and was still only eight years old.

He had earned Mr Fell £450,000 in prize money. Being a grey increased his popularity, and it was understandable that Williams referred to him as a “one-in-a-million” horse.

A degree of consolation was forthcoming when the stable’s Annsam took Saturday’s Silver Cup at Ascot, worth almost £40,000 to the winner.

Annsam carried the red and yellow colours of Wayne Clifford to a four-length victory. The owner’s Coole Cody won a big race at Cheltenham seven days previously. Adam Wedge was in the saddle on both occasions.

Williams and Wedge have Secret Reprieve, the favourite for the Welsh National on Monday. He bids to be the first dual winner since Mountainous in 2013 and 2015.

He’s only four pounds higher in the weights than last year. It would be some compensation for the horse’s owners, Mr and Mrs Rucker, whose promising novice hurdler Star Gate died a few weeks ago.

Finally, the Uno Mas success story continues. The seven-year-old is trained at Ogmore-by-Sea by Christian Williams and on Sunday won for the fifth time since September when scoring at Fakenham.

Uno Mas won a special recognition award at the ROA Welsh Horse Racing Awards in November.