Timeform's Horses To Follow for the 2022/23 jumps season is available to buy now. Here's an extract from the Rising Stars section, highlighting a couple of trainers to note.
Richard Bandey
Richard Bandey enjoyed much his best season in 2021/22 with a total of 19 winners from an increased string. Starting his training career in points, Bandey registered his first win under Rules in a novices’ hunters’ chase at Exeter in 2014 with Alskamatic, while his first winner after being granted a full licence in the autumn of 2018 came when Hard Station landed a gamble under Harry Bannister in a handicap chase at Market Rasen in November of that year.
Winners proved few and far between for the next few years but all that changed last season, particularly from February onwards, with Bannister again in the saddle for all bar two of the stable’s winners in 2021/22. New recruits to the yard contributed significantly to that success, none more so than Give Me A Moment, who was much improved over fences after being bought for just 8,000 guineas out of his Irish stable, with his win in a novices’ handicap at Market Rasen in April being his fourth success from his last five starts. He hasn’t stopped there, either, as he has since won twice more over hurdles this summer.
The ex-French Saint Palais did really well, too, completing a hat-trick over fences in the Mandarin Handicap Chase at Bandey’s local track, Newbury, in December when still only a four-year-old and later putting up a smart effort to win a good novices’ handicap at Uttoxeter on the Midlands National card. He could reportedly go back over hurdles where he still has novice status.
Another French recruit was cross-country chaser Diesel d’Allier, who already had winning form over Cheltenham’s cross-country course for Emmanuel Clayeux. He soon proved better than ever for his new stable, winning a handicap over the same course in December and then being far from discredited when finishing fourth behind Delta Work and Tiger Roll at the Cheltenham Festival.
The quality of the string was also boosted over the winter by the arrival of the smart but lazy staying chaser Mister Malarky, who’d seemed to have lost his way completely for Colin Tizzard. However, second places in the Grimthorpe at Doncaster and at Cheltenham’s April meeting on his two starts for Bandey in the spring showed he’d benefited from the change of scenery.
Gary Hanmer
Not all Rising Stars are necessarily overnight successes and that’s certainly true in Gary Hanmer’s case. His first winner under Rules came nearly 30 years ago, though the result of the North Western Area Point To Point Championship Final Hunters’ Chase at Bangor could have been even better for Hanmer as he had two runners in the race but partnered the shorter-priced of the pair instead of the 16/1 winner Mountain Cabin. But over 25 years there were plenty of successes in both a riding and training capacity for Hanmer on the point-to-point circuit with the occasional hunter chase victory as well.
In 2015, Hanmer took out a full training licence which resulted in more success, although his seasonal tallies initially remained in single figures. But there was a step-change in the yard’s fortunes last season which resulted in 32 wins at a strike rate of 22% which made Hanmer a very profitable trainer to follow as a profit of £75.29 to a £1 stake would have been made backing the stable’s runners.
It was notable that several of them managed to stay ahead of the handicapper during the season, with the likes of Isthebaropen and Steel Wave winning three times, Wbee and Hillview four times and fairly useful two-mile chaser Sir Tivo winning six races. Wbee enjoyed an unbeaten campaign which he capped with a win in a three-mile handicap hurdle at Cheltenham’s April meeting worth £10,000.
More than half of the stable’s winners last season came in the period May to September and they’ve been similarly productive this summer with 16 winners on the board by the end of August. Most of the horses named above have already won again this season. Wbee won an £18,000 contest at Cartmel in May for the second year running, the fact that he gained his latest win off a mark 18 lb higher than the year before showing how much improvement he has made in the interim. Cartmel is one of the tracks where Hanmer has had the most success in recent seasons behind only local course Bangor, Stratford and Southwell.
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