​13 entries in for £15,000 feature race at Kelso on Sunday

​Cumbrian trainer Martin Todhunter is lining up a crack at this coming Sunday’s feature race at Kelso with Jet Legs, a winner there last March.
By Darin Hutson
Published 10th Jan 2024, 08:29 BST
Jet Legs, right, being ridden by Jedburgh jockey Callum Bewley at Kelso in 2022 (Photo: Bill McBurnie)Jet Legs, right, being ridden by Jedburgh jockey Callum Bewley at Kelso in 2022 (Photo: Bill McBurnie)
Jet Legs, right, being ridden by Jedburgh jockey Callum Bewley at Kelso in 2022 (Photo: Bill McBurnie)

​The seven-year-old bay gelding, winner of the Schloss Roxburghe Hotel Handicap Hurdle’s £15,609 top prize at the Borders track with Patrick Wadge riding ten months ago, is set to contest the £15,000 Chairman’s Cup Handicap Chase over nearly three miles this weekend with Sean Quinlan in the saddle.

“He hasn’t done a lot wrong all the time he’s been with us,” Todhunter said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“He’s just turned seven and has only had three runs over fences so he has yet to realise his full potential.

“We are stepping him up in grade but it was a class-two race he won there over hurdles so he should be competitive enough.

“He’s gone up a few pounds for winning at Newcastle before Christmas but you’d like to think he should cope with that.”

Jet Legs is one of 13 entries for the 3.20pm race, and the others include Gentleman de Mai, a winner at Kelso in November with Hawick’s Craig Nichol as jockey. Nichol is lined up to ride the seven-year-old bay gelding, trained by Rose Dobbin in Northumberland, this time round too.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Greenlaw trainer Sandy Thomson and Hawick’s Ewan Whillans are also among the potential contenders for the chase’s £7,922 top prize, with Donna’s Double and Prince des Fichaux respectively.

Kinross trainer Lucinda Russell won last year’s Kelso Betting Ring Bookmakers Handicap Hurdle with Thereisnodoubt and she’s got entries in at the double for Sunday’s 2.50pm sequel, Bois Guillbert and Sextant, to be ridden respectively by Stephen Mulqueen and Wadge.

Whillans is considering contesting that two-mile race too with Cracking Rhapsody, as is Denholm’s Paul Robson with Cannock Park.

Sunday’s seven-race card also sees Scotland’s first hunter chase of the season in Scotland, the 3.50pm Join Racing TV Now Open Hunters’ Chase.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Camptown trainers Harriet Graham and Gary Rutherford have got an entry in for Aye Right for that two-mile-seven-furlong race but the 11-year-old bay gelding is also pencilled in for Warwick the day before and the English meeting looks the likelier option.

Gates open at 10.45am, with the first race off at 12.50pm.

Advance tickets cost £17 and entry on the day is £21. For details, go to https://kelso-races.co.uk/

Related topics:Kelso