HAVING been denied previous runs by firm ground, frost and the fear of his trainer, Racing Demon avoided the threat of a fourth f-word native to Haldon Hill, fog, and adorned a springlike afternoon with a performance of indelible quality. After the controversial loss of another high-profile Saturday, this was a welcome reminder of the Festival pleasures to come.
It was here at Exeter, on the first day of November, that Henrietta Knight was offered instant consolation for the death of Best Mate by the swaggering victory of Racing Demon. Since then, the nerves and superstitions she ritually devoted to her triple Gold Cup winner have been transferred to this embryonic star.
Everything had to be right for her to risk his unbeaten chasing record and, finally, everything suited Knight’s strict requirements. Overnight rain had softened the ground and the opposition, while hardly of the highest grade, at least offered this inexperienced horse a chance to gain essential education.
Timmy Murphy set out to achieve just this and, left in front before halfway over a trip half-a-mile further than he will face at Cheltenham next month, the jockey gradually increased the pace and the fluency of Racing Demon’s jumping. “He will be much better in a stronger race,” he reported. “He has so much scope.”
Knight could see none of this, having taken herself to the same spot in centre-course where she had settled for the final run of Best Mate. She stood with mobile phone pressed to her ear, a commentary being provided by her husband Terry Biddlecombe, who was nursing a bad back at home, and was unaware that her horse had diced with the wing of the fourth-last fence.
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“He made a mistake there,” Murphy said, “but he learnt from it and jumped the last three well. He hasn’t had many races, so I wanted to do something different with him today, rather than letting him hack round and win easily, and this will have helped him.”
The 2-7 favourite sauntered home by 15 lengths from Cornish Sett and was shortened for the Arkle by Ladbrokes (4-1 from 5-1) and William Hill (9-2 from 5s). Knight was relieved just to get the rehearsal accomplished. “We’ve brought him to the boil four times now and it’s not easy to keep getting horses to a pitch,” she said.
“Timmy said he was a bit deliberate, maybe a bit rusty, at some of the early fences but he needed this experience. He’s got a lovely style of jumping and, having watched it again, I’m not at all worried about him jumping right-handed. After hitting that wing, he was straight as a die at the last three.”
Another potential Cheltenham winner on show at Exeter was Noland, rerouted from the abandoned Newbury card to take the listed totesport.com Novices Hurdle by two lengths from Mister Quasimodo.
Paul Nicholls now has serious contenders for all the novice hurdling events at the Festival and explained: “I can’t split Noland and Natal at home and they will both run in the Supreme if the ground is good. Denman runs in the SunAlliance and Neptune Collonges goes for the three-mile Brit Insurance race so long as there is cut in the ground — he’ll run at Haydock next Saturday first.”
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Nicholls remained adamant that Newbury was unraceable on Saturday and added: “If they had gone ahead with racing, I’d have taken out Noland and all my other runners. It wasn’t safe, simple as that.”
This opinion is at odds with those of his Somerset neighbour, Philip Hobbs, and fellow trainer Ferdy Murphy, not to mention the trenchant view of Newbury’s managing director, Mark Kershaw, that the decision to abandon was premature. Kershaw wanted the stewards to delay the start of racing by half-an-hour but permission was refused and the valuable card fell after a fourth inspection, attended by selected trainers, jockeys and a vet. Yesterday, Kershaw said: “It was wholly avoidable and I cannot understand the lack of flexibility in the system.
“It would have been easy for us to abandon at 7.30am and by giving it every chance we have lost £25,000 in raceday expenses. The meeting was not insured and in my view it was not given enough time. The course was raceable by 2pm and our sport was left looking unprofessional and unbusinesslike.”
KELLY BANNED
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Shane Kelly is considering an appeal after being banned for 28 days at Lingfield on Saturday. He was found guilty of not riding out near the finish on 1-2 favourite Just Logic, who was caught on the post by Lake Shabla.