Uttoxeter Saturday

Bet365 Midlands Grand National

BEAUPORT (Nigel Twiston-Davies/Jordan Nailor) isn’t the easiest of rides, and made his regular rider work hard to keep him turning left when needed, but the eight-year-old belatedly built on the huge promise of his chase debut to win the big staying prize predicted since his novice hurdling days.

The 18/1 chance has been disappointing since taking the Colin Parker Memorial on his 2022/’23 reappearance, particularly so when well held behind My Silver Lining (Emma Lavelle/James Best) in the Classic Chase at Warwick when last seen, but despite proving hard to steer on the bend out of the home straight on both occasions, he got back to winning ways in game fashion, prompting Nailor to salute the crowd as he passed the line.

My Silver Lining made much of the running and typically gave her all, but she was hard pressed between the last two fences with Beauport as well Mr Incredible (Willie Mullins/Brian Hayes) and Autonomous Cloud looking dangerous.

She responded well but was unable to withhold the strong late run of Beauport, who raced much handier than is usually the case. Mr Incredible inherited second in the shadow of the post, with the official distances a length and three quarters and half-a-length.

Speaking to ITV Racing, a delighted Nailor said: “He’s a bit of a big old lump and the bends are a bit tight for him at times and he was hanging a bit.

Challenge

“His jumping has been a challenge over fences a few times but today he was good - very, very good - and that’s what won it for him today; those last few big jumps.

“He means so much to me this horse, he’s given me the best days out ever. The people here make it a brilliant, fun place, it’s always a great atmosphere and all thanks go to the horse and Faye who looks after him and rides him every day.”

The winner carries the colours of Bryan and Philippa Burrough, who also owned 1983 Grand National hero Corbiere, and Twiston-Davies hopes that the son of Califet might himself grace the Aintree turf next season.

DAN Skelton enjoyed a productive week at Cheltenham and continued his good run when Gwennie May Boy (Charlie Todd) won the valuable Bet365 Handicap Hurdle.

The winner, named after owner Gwendoline May Clarke, jumped well held up, before making an eye-catching move in the back straight, and he led going well before the penultimate flight.

At that point it looked a case of name the distance, and the former Jonjo O’Neill inmate dotted up by three and three-quarter lengths from Supremely West (Dr Richard Newland and Jamie Insole/Charlie Hammond), with the pair 16 lengths clear of the field in what had looked a very competitive handicap.

Double

Skelton was scoring a double on the card, with Ben Sutton riding his father Nick’s Santos Blue to victory in the preceding handicap hurdle over two and a half miles, while Jonjo O’Neill’s disappointment with the poor run of Iron Bridge in the big race was eased somewhat when 16/1 shot Regal Blue (Nick Scholfield) bounced back to winning ways in the novices’ handicap chase having run poorly .

John McConnell maintained an excellent strike-rate in Britain when Lieutenant Mayne (Ben Harvey) made all the running to beat Peacenik in the concluding bumper.

This was the Stamullen trainer’s fifth bumper winner from just eight such runners in the Britain this season.

Kempton Saturday

NICKY Henderson had a welcome winner at Kempton on Saturday when Persian Time (Nico de Boinville) took the novices’ handicap chase from Soul Icon, while the big handicap hurdle went the way of Dan and Harry Skelton courtesy of Boombawn, who beat favourite Titan Discovery in a tight finish.

The Skeltons looked to have sound claims of a feature-race double with Flegmatik, but that gelding had to play second fiddle to the Paul Nicholls-trained Outlaw Peter (Harry Cobden). There were also wins on the card for Ben Pauling, Alan King and Fergal O’Brien.