Peterborough Chase a possible option for Aintree hero Nuts Well

Ashley Iveson
October 26, 2020 5:30 pm

Ann Hamilton considering Huntingdon contest.

The Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon has emerged as a potential next port of call for Nuts Well following his surprise victory in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree on Sunday.

One of just a handful of horses trained in Northumberland by Ann Hamilton and owned by her husband Ian, the nine-year-old charged home on Merseyside to upset the big guns in the hands of conditional jockey Danny McMenamin.

While appreciative of the biggest success of their training career, there was no basking in the glory for the husband-and-wife team on Monday, with Ann Hamilton saying: “It was straight back into work this morning. Ian has been doing his jobs on the farm and it’s been busy.

“We were absolutely thrilled yesterday. He (Nuts Well) was tired this morning, because obviously ran his best, but he’s been out in the field today and he’s covered in mud – you wouldn’t recognise him!”

Hamilton admitted the victory came as a surprise and she must now start looking for races in the programme book she has never previously considered.

She said: “He’s worked his way up the handicap. We didn’t know whether to go to Aintree or wait for a race at Wetherby on Friday, but we felt the horse was in good form and we’d go to Aintree and give it a go.

“We’d have been thrilled if he’d finished in the first four and at one point it looked like he was going backwards, but when Danny got him pulled out he came with a run.

“He’s won for us every year since he was a four-year-old. He can throw in a bad one, as they all can, but he’s been the horse of a lifetime for us really.”

Asked about future plans, Hamilton added: “I’m not used to this at all! We’re not great travellers, but we’ve said this will be the only chance we’ll have to have a go.

“Richard Hale, the jockeys’ agent, has been on the phone and he says the Peterborough Chase over two and half miles might be a good race for him. Other than that, Ian wants to lift him up to three miles, but the Peterborough Chase would look the race at the moment.

“It’s lovely to have a horse that can run in these races and we’ll have to look after him – we can’t run him every couple of weeks.”