Rest of Warwick review | Galia Des Liteaux gallops to taking Warwick triumph

Galia looks great in Hampton

Galia Des Liteaux never put a foot wrong as she jumped her rivals into submission in the eventmasters.co.uk Hampton Novices’ Chase at Warwick.

Dan Skelton has made no secret of the regard in which he holds the seven-year-old mare, and when she won a Listed event for mares on her chasing debut the sky looked the limit.

Upped to Grade One level for the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase over Christmas she almost fell at the second and then made another bad mistake at the fifth before she was eventually pulled up.

Connections were content to put a line through that run, insisting that her jumping was sound in the main – and so it proved on this occasion as she put in some big leaps on the way round.

Paul Nicholls’ Complete Unknown was giving vain chase, as was Gordon Elliott’s The Goffer, but neither could ever get on terms.

With the last fence bypassed, Harry Skelton kept Galia Des Liteaux (11-4) up to her work to take Grade Two honours by 13 lengths.

“She made a very bad mistake at the second jump in the Kauto Star and I don’t think anyone would really have beaten Thyme Hill that day. It’s almost a blessing in disguise that she did that because it meant she didn’t have a hard race,” said Dan Skelton.

“I was surprised with what happened at Kempton and because she made the first mistake she made the second one. If she hadn’t made the first one she wouldn’t have made the second one. When you are trying to chase those good horses and making mistakes it’s not going to happen, so Harry did the right thing pulling her up because she wasn’t going. If he had kept going she possibly wouldn’t have been here today.

“There’s nothing better than a good lady in your corner. I’m very lucky I have my wife, my daughter and now Galia Des Liteaux as well. We’ve done well with the mares over the years, Roxana probably leads the team – she won a Grade One – but this one is obviously very, very good.

“I know she wants slow ground and we know she stays. She won at Bangor because she’s good. She didn’t win there because two miles suits her, she won there because she’s good. So I was always confident and she’s going in the right direction as a chaser.

“We will be respectful of her efforts there today. It is very easy to say we will go for the Towton (at Wetherby) in three weeks’ time because it will be heavy and it will suit her, but I harbour more respect for her than that.

“We could wait another two weeks and consider the Reynoldstown (at Ascot) then that’s fine. If you got a really, really soft Cheltenham then it would come into consideration, but then you would have to skip the Reynoldstown because you couldn’t do both.

“Then I would perhaps get a bit adventurous and see what mares’ races are available over the other side of the Irish Sea because I can’t see any over here jumping off the page at me at the moment other than the Festival.

“I don’t think she won’t perform well on it (better ground), I just think she’s really, really effective in that sort of ground and sometimes when you have a horse who is really effective in it, they are super effective – they can outrun themselves by 20lb or more and I think she is a horse who is reallyy suited by bad ground.

“She’s a lovely mare with a great attitude.”

Haddex impresses

Meanwhile, the Gary Moore-trained Haddex Des Obeaux (5/4 Favourite) was introduced at 10/1 for the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase The Cheltenham Festival after trouncing the field by 19 lengths in our second race, the Wigley Support Fund Edward Courage Cup Handicap Chase over two miles.

The four-strong field was a small but select one and included a Grade Two winner in Third Time Lucki as well as the improving Galop De Chasse, though neither could live with Gary Moore’s charge, who bounded to a 19-length pillar-to-post success.

And while he wouldn’t be drawn to Festival targets, the winning jockey Jamie Moore hinted that the six year old could be back out sooner rather than later.

He said: “That was impressive and I could have done with the last fence being in as he jumps so well! It’s a track that’s custom made for him, we saw the race in the entries book and once he saw those fences we kicked on and got the race won.

“He’s improving and he’s by Saddex – the same sire as Editeur Du Gite. He was getting beaten off marks of 120 and now he’s rated 160 – I’m not saying this lad is that level, but he is improving.

“We could look at the Kingmaker but there is a race at Lingfield as well (the Godstone Handicap Chase on Friday 20th January), which we could consider. He’s done that nicely enough but I’m not the trainer, I’ll see what dad says but sometimes you’ve got to strike when the iron is hot.”

Grey Dawning takes step up in class in his stride

Grey Dawning stayed on stoutly to throw his hat into the ring for the Cheltenham Festival with a gritty display in the Ballymore Leamington Novices’ Hurdle at Warwick.

Winner of a handicap off just 123 at Kempton on Boxing Day, Dan Skelton’s charge faced a huge rise in class for the Grade Two event.

Won by the likes of Inglis Drever, Carruthers, The New One and Willoughby Court in the past, the race can certainly throw up a top-class performer.

On paper at least it looked wide open, with Gary Moore’s Givega, related to the great Quevega, sent off the 3-1 favourite in a field of seven.

Lucinda Russell’s Snake Roll tried to stretch the field but his jumping fell apart down the back straight when Paul Nicholls’ Knowsley Road, Tom Lacey’s Ginny’s Destiny and the eventual winner all pulled clear.

Grey Dawning (9/2) briefly looked in trouble at one stage and then when Harry Skelton went for a gap between the other two, it began to close.

Skelton had enough horse underneath him, though, and the grey pulled clear in testing conditions to win by five lengths from Ginny’s Destiny.

A delighted winning trainer said: “We’ve always liked him. It’s pretty obvious to say a horse that has won two bumpers you are quite excited about as a novice hurdler, but you’ve got to go and convert that and I think he has done. It was no disgrace to get beat first time, we needed the run a little bit then, but the horse of (David) Pipe’s that beat us is a good horse in his own right.

“This horse has got progressive now and he’s just smart, he’s very smart.

“I had to go to Kempton because he was so well handicapped and I knew I wanted to come here with something. I had Pembroke in mind, but I just think he wants to stick at two miles for now so he’ll go to the Rossington Main next weekend. And when I felt that way about Pembroke, I started to feel differently about Grey Dawning.

“He’ll go any trip and he can go further. Harry said he wasn’t loving the ground – he gets away with it, but he wasn’t loving it.

“In fairness it’s probably good that it has rained, he probably wouldn’t be at home on real tacky ground, at least it was a bit loose. He wouldn’t want to race here on Tuesday, I think he’d find that really unpleasant. He’s going the right way though that’s for sure.”

He went on: “My immediate reaction is he should be going three miles rather than two and a half. We’ll enter him in the Albert Bartlett and if we weren’t happy with that we would go to Aintree. We will see how he is and how the landscape looks for Cheltenham, but I would be highly surprised if he ran at Cheltenham if it was anything other than the Friday.

“Over three miles you could probably ride him a bit more and arrive later on the scene. In a weird way, what happened at the last probably isn’t the worst thing in the world to get a bump and make him concentrate a little bit because when he hit the front at Kempton he ran all over the shop. He’s probably just improving a bit as well and getting the hang of racing.”

Longsdon delight as Glimpse Of Gala secures Festival ticket

Glimpse Of Gala put herself in the Cheltenham Festival picture when landing the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle at Warwick.

A four-length winner at Kempton last month, Charlie Longsdon’s seven-year-old continued her fine association with young conditional Bradley Roberts, with the 7/4 favourite pulling out extra to hold off Dan Skelton’s Becher Chase hero Ashtown Lad.

The winner has now booked her spot in the final of the Pertemps Series at Prestbury Park and was introduced into the betting at 20/1 by Betfair.

“She’s from a very tough family,” said Longsdon. “My landlord has bred three generations of the family and they have all been very tough and she is certainly the epitome of tough.

“A year ago I would never have run her on heavy ground and now she seems to relish it and thrive in it and outbattles them.

“I thought the second horse was going better than us, but she just outbattled him.”

“We’re qualified now for Cheltenham and that will be the plan if we’re good enough to get there.”

On a Festival bid he added: “That will be the plan, we’ve got Hector Javilex who we also need to get qualified.

“So I’m glad we’ve got Glimpse Of Gala qualified, hopefully we get him qualified as well in a couple of weeks and it will be great to have a couple of runners there.”

A return to Warwick saw Joe Tizzard’s Non Stop (16/5) back to winning ways in the opening Mark Jackson & Neil Keenan Memorial Novices’ Handicap Hurdle.

A winner over course and distance on hurdles debut, he could only finish third at Sandown last time. But he pounced with precision at the second-last and drew clear to record a nine-and-a-half-length victory.

Winning rider Tom Cannon said: “He was a bit keen round Sandown the last day, obviously he had course form round here, although I think Sandown was a bit stiff for him.

“The race panned out well, the front ones came back to me and I probably got there a bit soon in the end. He had all the allowances, which obviously helped in these conditions, but he saw it out well.”

The concluding bumper went the way of Tom Lacey’s The Cox Express (100/30) who kept on well to grind down Yonconor for a one-and-a-half-length success.

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