John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on the racing front on New Year's Day.
Broadway Boy going for fourth win at Cheltenham
Trained locally by Nigel Twiston-Davies who ended 2024 in good form, the stable’s smart handicap chaser Broadway Boy goes for a fourth course win under top weight in the Betfair Handicap Chase (13:30). He gained his first win at the track in a three-mile handicap hurdle in April 2023 when ridden from the front for the first time and those tactics have been adopted in all his races since to make use of his abundant stamina.
Very much a chaser on looks, Broadway Boy was switched to fences last season and won twice more at Cheltenham’s November and December meetings, first in a listed novice chase and then in a premier handicap in which he beat Threeunderthrufive and the subsequent Ryanair Chase winner Protektorat.
On his two other visits to Cheltenham, Broadway Boy has picked up place money, including when making an encouraging return in third behind a Henry de Bromhead-trained pair in October. Since then, he has run a cracker to finish second to Kandoo Kid in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury when in the firing line throughout and sticking to his task. That form has already been franked by Victtorino and Henry’s Friend, who both finished just behind Broadway Boy, winning good races since.
Broadway Boy’s likeable style of racing means he’s ideally suited to the demands of Cheltenham, and with only four rivals to beat he should get his own way in front again and prove hard to peg back. Were he to win this he would be out on his own as the winningmost horse at Cheltenham since the start of 2023.
Hogmaneigh hat-trick for Benson?
Hopefully the poor weather forecast which has spoilt Edinburgh’s New Year’s celebrations won’t put too much of a dampener on nearby Musselburgh’s card where Benson is bidding to win the Hogmaneigh Handicap Hurdle (13:45) for the third year running. He’d formerly been a tricky ride but proved a reformed character once joining Sandy Thomson’s stable and gained his first win in the Hogmaneigh in 2023 by 11 lengths when making all the running. Ryan Mania was in the saddle for the first time on that occasion and has been Benson’s regular partner ever since.
Benson followed up in the Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso later that season and won the Hogmaneigh again last year, off an 8 lb higher mark than in 2023, when reverting to the front-running tactics that had been successful a year earlier. More recently, however, Benson has been struggling for form, though it’s easy enough to make excuses for his last couple of runs when given another try over fences and then being well out of his depth in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle.
But while Benson has to give weight away all round and has the likes of Sweet Fantasy and Liari from the stables of James Owen and Paul Nicholls to contend with, he’s on a 4 lb lower mark than last year and the return to this venue could well be sufficient to spark a revival and complete the hat-trick.
Cheltenham bumper full of interest
Cheltenham’s card ends with their biggest field of the day for the listed ‘junior’ bumper (15:50) for horses which have turned four on New Year's Day and there are points of interest among several of the 17 runners.
For example, Frankel has a rare Cheltenham runner here and if Cedar Creek, who’s also a grandson of high-class Flat mare Shiva, were to follow up his Aintree success last time for Rebecca Curtis, he’d be his sire’s first winner at the track from just a handful of runners.
Henrietta Knight saddles her first runner at Cheltenham since resuming training early in 2024 and is represented by Precious Metal who showed promise when second on his recent debut at Wincanton. The trainer’s last Cheltenham winner came on this same card 13 years ago when Calgary Bay won a Grade 3 handicap chase.
Anthony Honeyball has three runners, two of them newcomers, but Harry Skelton looks an interesting booking for the stable’s other runner Marhaba Prince who beat Precious Metal at Wincanton when trained by Owen Burrows. The jockey is taking his first ride in a bumper this season for a trainer other than his brother, Dan Skelton.
A Cheltenham bumper is a far cry from the Arc and Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint which he won in 2024, but Ralph Beckett could get the New Year off to a winning start here with Gnomon, the mount of Harry Cobden. Gnomon was a ready winner on his debut at Exeter in October against eleven other newcomers, including Cedar Creek, and with improvement expected and seemingly saved for this contest he looks the one to beat. Incidentally, Beckett’s last three runners under National Hunt Rules have all been winners, the previous two coming in the same race at Exeter which he also won in 2021 and 2022.
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