Hawick jockey Jamie Hamilton in saddle for £50,000 feature race contender at Kelso this weekend

Hawick racehorse trainer Ewan Whillans with Bella Bluesky (Photo: Bill McBurnie)Hawick racehorse trainer Ewan Whillans with Bella Bluesky (Photo: Bill McBurnie)
Hawick racehorse trainer Ewan Whillans with Bella Bluesky (Photo: Bill McBurnie)
Hawick jockey Jamie Hamilton is hoping for a good run from Betty Baloo in the feature event at another big-money meeting at Kelso Racecourse on Saturday.

The Racing Post Go North Raceday card is offering £201,000 in prize money and the six-year-old bay mare is one of 17 entries for the £50,000 Herring Queen Series Final Mares’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle at 3.15pm.

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Trained in Malton in North Yorkshire by Tim Easterby, Betty Baloo won a series qualifier at Catterick earlier this month and Hamilton, now based south of the border, said: “She dropped back in trip and won well last time.

“It looks a competitive race but she will like the ground and should hopefully run a nice race.”

With a British Horseracing Authority rating of 129, Theatre Glory, trained by Berkshire’s Nicky Henderson, is the top-ranked entry for that race and the five-year-old bay mare won at Warwick last month, having qualified for this final with victory at Huntingdon in November.

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Other opposition includes Hawick trainer Ewan Whillans’ home-bred brown mare Bella Bluesky, venturing into handicap company for the first time after a victory last month in a course and distance novice hurdle at Kelso.

The 3.46pm Go North Cab on Target Handicap Hurdle series final sees Camptown-based partnership Harriet Graham and Gary Rutherford represented by Shoughall’s Boy, a six-year-old bay gelding up a total of 8lb for back-to-back wins at Hexham in November and December.

The pair also have Don Brocco lined up for the 1.35pm Schloss Roxburghe Hotel Handicap Hurdle, along with Whillans’ Kaizer.

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Spittal-on-Rule trainer Paul Robson’s Flamboyant Joyaux is among eight entries for the following race, the 2.10pm KOSB Handicap Chase.

Saturday’s seven-race card, part of a weekend-long event also including a meeting at Musselburgh on Friday and one at Carlisle on Sunday, concludes with the 4.21pm Go North Jodami Series Final Open National Hunt Flat Race.

The race is named after the North Yorkshire-trained bay gelding who made a winning debut at Kelso in a bumper in 1990 prior to taking the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years later.

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North Yorkshire trainer Peter Niven, a regular jockey of Cab on Target, the horse the preceding race is named after, has booked Jedburgh’s Callum Bewley to ride Sedgefield winner Ontherouge, bred by his mother Joan, in that race, offering a top prize of £15,609.

Entries pencilled in by Kelso trainer Sandy Thomson include Empire Steel in the 2.45pm Paxtons for Kverneland in the Borders Handicap Chase and Bak Rocky and Goodtimes Badtimes for the 3.46pm hurdle.

Admission costs £25. For details, go to https://www.kelso-races.co.uk/