Scottish Grand National report and replay: Kitty's Light an emotional winner for Christian Williams
By Ian Ogg
08:16 · SUN April 23, 2023
Last year's second Kitty's Light (4/1 joint-favourite) recorded an emotional success in the Coral Scottish Grand National Handicap Chase at Ayr for Christian Williams and Jack Tudor.
There were some notable absentees from the four mile contest with the drying ground ruling out Monbeg Genius and Elvis Mail among others but a field of 18 still faced the starter after a short delay to clear protestors from the course.
All runners were in contention at the end of the first two of three circuits with Manothepeople and Lord Accord sharing pacemaking duties with Undersupervision, Ruthless Article and Threeunderthrufive in the next rank with Flash Collonges getting a clear sight of his fences on the outside.
That didn't prevent the latter coming down at the nineteenth (of 27), bringing down Dusart, with Mighty Thunder departing at the same obstacle as the field began to string out.
Turning for home with four to take Magna Sam cruised into contention, going on from Lord Accord, but he was soon challenged by Kitty's Light and Cooper's Cross.
Kitty's Light was in front at the last and survived a blunder to go one better than last year, staying on strongly to collect by three lengths, readily defying an 8 lb rise for his Eider Chase success in February.
Cooper's Cross was second with Flash De Touzaine third, Threeunderthrufive fourth and Magna Sam, whose effort proved short-lived, coming home in fifth.
The other joint-favourite, Your Own Story, finished sixth for last weekend's Grand National winning trainer, Lucinda Russell.
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Victory was emotional as trainer Christian Williams' daughter, Betsy, has recently been diagnosed with leukemia.
The successful jockey Tudor, who recently took the job as stable jockey for David Pipe, told ITV Racing: "This means an awful lot to Christian, his little girl is really unwell, and hopefully this will be a massive lift to him more than anyone. The whole family, Charlotte and the girls, it means a lot this one so well done to everyone at the yard. People won't know what this will mean to Christian."
And on Kitty's Light, he said: "He's a legend. He's small, he's flat bred, he's not a brilliant jumper but he's just been trained to the absolute minute."
Williams commented: "Brilliant, very important horse.
"Big battle on at home with my daughter but great, this horse will cheer everyone up.
"Lucky to have the staff I've got and the family as well. It's a great tonic for the children watching at home and I'm looking forward to getting back tonight and seeing them all."
Jack Tudor and Christian Williams lead the celebrations
Expanding on the performance of his winner, Williams told Racing TV: “He bumped into a horse last year that looked unstoppable, nothing could have beaten her (Win My Wings) that day.
“With Kitty we had a plan to go Eider Chase and then this. He was a bit slow to come to hand earlier in the season, but he did a piece of work 10 days ago that Jack said we hadn’t seen the likes of for 12 months.
“We came here fairly confident, but we knew we’d need luck in running because he’s only small.
“It just goes to show the luck you need, he’s flat-bred yet he’s running in four-mile chases. Fences probably get in his way. They aren’t too big here and he just seems to come to himself at this time of year.
“The only thing about last year is Jack wasn’t on the winner so I didn’t quite get the same kick out of it. To win it on Kitty’s this year is great.
“We won’t write Sandown (bet365 Gold Cup) off just yet because he can have a nice long break after that.”
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