LIZZIE’S DREAM
Jockey eyes Festival after Tea bags win
LIZZIE KELLY was dreaming of the Cheltenham Festival after Tea For Two romped to victory in the William Hill Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton.
But the in-form jockey’s mother Jane Williams, Tea For Two’s owner and wife and assistant to trainer Nick, is not so sure.
Tea For Two travelled really powerfully for 21-year-old Kelly and jumped into the lead four from home.
One or two rivals looked as though they might get within striking distance but the six-year-old Tea For Two went further and further clear and taking the last in his stride, the 9-2 joint-favourite powered home for a 16-length success from Little Boy Boru.
This is the second high-profile Saturday victory for Kelly, still a 7lb claimer, who won the Grade 3 Fixed Brush Hurdle on Aubusson at Haydock earlier i n the season and currently boasts an incredible 39-per-cent strike rate with Williams.
She said: ‘We will be building up his strength before he goes chasing.
‘My brother quietly mentioned Cheltenham to me as I was walking into the weighing room but we will keep our feet on the ground.
‘If he does go to the Festival, then it would be absolutely brilliant, but we will just have to see what happens.’
But her mother, Jane, was not convinced: ‘I’ve been doing this for my daughter and trying to find handicaps for him so that she can claim. Handicaps might be out now,’ she said.
‘Personally, I would prefer to duck out of Cheltenham but there are plenty of good races in France where he would get the softer ground that he wants. ‘I don’t think the Graded races would suit him that much, and the World Hurdle might be better where there wouldn’t be a big field and he wouldn’t have to cope with all the hurly burly, but obviously that race would be asking a lot of him.
‘We’ve got no plans for this horse. This was the plan and it’s back to the drawing board.
‘He would have wanted softer ground than that at Kempton but I’m not surprised that he won. Even so, I didn’t expect him to leave a serious field like that
behind him in that manner.’