J’Ai Froid digs deep for Warwick win

Pertemps success for Laura Morgan’s runner.

John Kington enjoyed his biggest victory in the saddle as J’Ai Froid took advantage of a final-flight blunder from Kyntara to claim the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle at Warwick.

Both Laura Morgan’s winner and the Mel Rowley-trained runner-up were to the fore throughout in the extended three-mile contest, but J’Ai Froid’s chance appeared to have evaporated as the 11-year-old came under a drive two out while Kyntara appeared full of running under Charlie Deutsch.

However, Kyntara put in a sluggish leap at the last which gave the chasing pack hope and Kington conjured up extra from the willing veteran to rally for a three-quarter-length victory at odds of 8-1.

Kington was keen to express his gratitude to J’Ai Froid’s handler Morgan, who has allowed him to strike up a fine partnership with one of her stable stalwart’s this season.

He said: “I moved down by Laura’s at the start of the season and began to ride out, I’ve been in four or five mornings a week and she ended up putting me on him for his first run of the year and he ended up winning.

“Luckily enough and thank you to Laura, but she has kept me on him and we haven’t been out of the first two.

“It’s marvellous for the team back at home and I’m just a small part of the team who gets to enjoy riding him on the track.

“It’s one of the biggest days of my riding career and I’ve been at it a long time. I love my racing and this is what I’m here to do. I’m normally away somewhere else riding when the racing is on the TV and it’s thanks to Laura really for giving me that opportunity.

“Days like this are what you wake up in the morning for, finding that one horse, and I’m over the moon.”

Nigel Hawke’s Donnacha (2-1 favourite) had bumped into quality opposition when placing at Cheltenham the last twice, but supplemented his early-season Chepstow success with a battling display under Lorcan Murtagh in the Michael Costello Memorial Handicap Hurdle.

“He deserved that,” said Hawke. “The last two runs have been in good company and he hasn’t disgraced himself and he’s a work in progress and is improving all the time.

Donnacha is a horse on the up for Nigel Hawke
Donnacha is a horse on the up for Nigel Hawke (PA)

“We won at Chepstow first time out, so this is his second win of the season and he has been to Cheltenham twice. The idea was to go to Cheltenham to get an idea of what we have got and we got that.

“We waited 18 months before he even hit the racecourse, he was a lovely three- and four-year-old but we’ve waited and are reaping the rewards now. There is a lack of these horses in the country because it takes time, but with the right owners you reap rewards long term.”

Betfair left Donnacha unchanged at 16-1 for Newbury’s Betfair Hurdle on February 10 and Hawke confirmed that race would come under consideration for the steadily improving six-year-old.

He added: “He’s in at Newbury (in the Betfair) and we will see what happens – we will have to have a look at it.

“Whatever he does this year, he will be a better horse next year over two and a half (miles) and probably fences, so I won’t be killing him this year.

“I think we will look after him a bit and there are thoughts of the EBF Final (at Sandown) but by then the ground might have dried out.

“Let’s go home with the programme book and see, If he had won by 15-20 lengths today and he didn’t have the Newbury entry you would be kicking yourself, but we’ll see how we go. He’s a great horse for the future.”

There were only two runners in the Unibet Edward Courage Cup Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase but Dan Skelton’s Etalon marked himself as a horse on the rise by following up his impressive Newbury return with a cosy 44-length success.

Meanwhile, Joe Tizzard’s Diamond Ri (evens favourite) opened his hurdles account at the second attempt in the Wigley Support Fund ‘National Hunt’ Maiden Hurdle.

An impressive bumper winner at the track in the spring, he bumped into Paul Nicholls’ well-regarded Insurrection at Exeter on his hurdles bow, but upped in trip he produced a professional performance in the hands of Brendan Powell.

Diamond Ri got off the mark over hurdles at Warwick
Diamond Ri got off the mark over hurdles at Warwick (PA)

“I think the form of his Exeter run is brilliant and he just tweaked a muscle, hence you haven’t seen him again since,” explained Tizzard.

“He’s still very raw and has a lot to learn still, but he’s getting the hang of it and he’s getting the hang of jumping at home. He’s not going to be an immediate natural because he’s a big frame of a horse, but he has a big engine and Brendan was just educating him and said once you gave him a flick, he quickened away nicely. I like him a lot.

“He’s going to make a lovely chaser and he’s just a big, raw National Hunt youngster, he’s not a speedster or anything like that but he has a lot of class.

“He’ll get all the entries and we will run again in three weeks’ time (in a novice under a penalty) and we’ll see where we are. He hasn’t got to go to Cheltenham but he’ll have the entries and sometimes you have to take your chance while you can as well.

“We’ll just try to do right by the horse, let him develop and let him tell us where he wants to end up.”

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