Ascot Friday

THE Grade 2 Kennel Gate Novices’ Hurdle last Friday saw Dan Skelton’s My Drogo easy to back despite a stylish maiden hurdle win at Newbury on his previous start, eventually going off at 9/1, and the homebred son of Milan defied that drift by posting another impressive win under the trainer’s brother Harry.

My Drogo, named after a character in Game of Thrones, mastered favourite Llandinabo Lad (Tom Symonds/Richard Johnson) after the last having travelled best, and he passed the post with two and three quarter lengths in hand.

The runner-up was conceding 5lb, so comes out of the race with great credit, while there was no obvious excuse for the well-regarded Soaring Glory (Jonjo O’Neill/Jonjo Jr) in third.

It was refreshing to hear the winning trainer not getting carried away by a certain meeting in March as he hailed his winner.

“We’ve got no wild ambitions as a hurdler and his ability isn’t going to force us into making mistakes” said Skelton:

“We could look to step him up in trip and he could go to Huntingdon for the Sidney Banks, perhaps miss Cheltenham and then go to Aintree.”

Novices’ Chase

There was a decent renewal of a Grade 2 novice chasers’ contest which features such worthies as Simonsig and Politologue on its recent roll of honour, and it was the connections of the first-named who struck again with the exciting Allart (Nicky Henderson/Nico de Boinville) making a taking chase debut to get the better of another smart prospect in the shape of Fiddlerontheroof (Colin Tizzard/Robbie Power).

Allart, sent off the 5/2 second choice in the betting, made a couple of early mistakes, but his jumping improved as the race wore on, and both he and the runner-up put in big leaps as they disputed the advantage at the final fence, with Allart finding the greater speed on the run-in to win by two and three quarter lengths.

Early leader Kiltealy Briggs kept plugging away when headed and finished a respectable third, another eight lengths behind the runner-up.

This wasn’t the first time Allart had bested Fiddlerontheroof, with the pair meeting in the Supreme at Cheltenham in March, where Allart was a creditable fifth to stablemate Shishkin, with the Tizzard horse disappointing.

Allart ran well at Cheltenham given his relative lack of experience, and it’s hard not to conclude that he’s a better prospect than the experienced Fiddlerontheroof, for whom this was a fourth chase start.

Nicky Henderson has a habit of introducing his smart novices at intermediate trips, and for all Allart stayed this two miles and three furlongs well, his trainer was keen to accentuate the gelding’s “natural pace” and he could easily make up into an Arkle contender with experience to sharpen up his jumping.

Bumper winner

The concluding listed bumper saw a Paul Nicholls one-two but it was the outsider of the two, Knappers Hill under the trainer’s daughter Megan, who prove too strong for the favourite Stage Star.

The winner is unbeaten in his two outings and was bred by Ronnie O’Neill who stands his sire Valirann at his Whytemount Stud.