Nells Son provided his trainer Nicky Richards with a “great tonic” by claiming top honours in the Richard Landale Memorial Handicap Chase at Kelso on Sunday.
The 68-year-old is currently in hospital after suffering a number of serious injuries in a fall on the gallops at his Greystoke yard late last month, including a broken shoulder, broken pelvis and broken ribs.
Just a couple of weeks earlier his stable stalwart Nells Son had made a fine start to his campaign with a lucrative success in a four-runner graduation chase at Carlisle to set up a tilt at this £75,000 feature in the Scottish borders.
The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Matata took the field along at a strong gallop for much of the way and had the majority of his rivals on the stretch from before the home turn.
Nells Son (6/1) and Danny McMenamin managed to keep themselves in the fight though and a bold leap at the final fence gave him them momentum he needed as Richards’ charge reeled in Matata on the run-in and got up by a neck.
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Speaking from his hospital bed in Carlisle, Richards said: “I’m delighted with him, completely delighted. It was a competitive little race, but he’s always been a very decent horse.
“We were messing about over two and a half miles and things like that, but I think he’s just an out-and-out two-miler. Those top-class two-mile chasers need a good gallop and he got that today.
“He’s a good servant and has landed a couple of good pots now this season, so we’ll have to try to get another one with him now. I’m quite sure he’ll hold his own in top-class handicaps.
“We’ll try to find a race in January with him. I’m laid out in hospital at the moment, but I’ll try to get hold of the programme book, try to get another three nice races into him and hopefully we’ll have had a cracking season with him.”
On his recovery, Richards added: “I’m lucky enough the nurse has been and got me a shot of that morphine, so I’m feeling pretty good at the moment!
“It’s sore and it’s going to be a steady process, but I have a great team at home and the horses are wanting for nothing anyway.
“I’m basically waiting to get myself up and moving a bit. Hopefully I might get down to the little cottage hospital in Penrith and get a physio doing a bit of work on me and then hopefully it won’t be too long before I’m home again.
“I just listened to the race today on the phone and it’s a great tonic.”
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