£50,000 feature race at Kelso to be contested all over again by 2024 winner and runner-up
This coming Saturday’s £50,000 feature race at Kelso looks set to be contested all over again by its winner and runner-up last year.
Elvis Mail, a ten-year-old grey gelding trained near Glenrothes in Fife by Nick Alexander and ridden by Hawick jockey Bruce Lynn, won 2024’s Edinburgh Gin Chase at the Borders track by three lengths from Cumbrian handler Nicky Richards’ Famous Bridge, with Sean Quinlan in the eight-year-old bay gelding’s saddle, and they’re among 12 provisional entries for that three-mile-two-furlong race this time round.
Lynn, winner of the same race on Elvis Mail in 2023, and Quinlan are already booked to resume that rivalry and vie for a top prize of £26,015 at 3.55pm.
Elvis Mail has only raced once since that last win, the tenth of his career, and that was at Doncaster in South Yorkshire last December, with Lynn riding, but was pulled up.
Famous Bridge has seen action four times in the interim, winning once, at Merseyside’s Haydock Park in February, with Quinlan as jockey.
“We’ll probably go down the same route again this season with him,” said Greystoke-based Richards, 69, looking ahead to what’s likely to be his 2024 runner-up’s fourth race of the year.
“It is likely to be a couple of nice handicap chases and then the Grand National trial at Haydock in February.
“It usually all falls into place and, given that he races for Hemmings Racing, it would be lovely to get him high enough up the handicap to have a crack at the Grand National.
“Fingers crossed that we can keep him healthy, and hopefully we will have plenty of fun with him along the way.”
Potential rivals to last year’s top two include Imperial Alex, trained by Tom Lacey in Herefordshire and with Stan Sheppard booked as jockey, a winner at Perth in early September.
Also entered, with Brian Hughes booked for the ride, is Grozni, fourth in April’s Scottish Grand National at Ayr for Suffolk trainer James Owen but now with Kelso’s Sandy Thomson after changing hands at May’s sales for £24,000.
Saturday’s supporting card includes the £20,000 Nuts Well Handicap Chase over two miles and a furlong at 4.30pm.
Aeros Luck, like Grozni, is set to make his debut for Thomson’s Lambden stables at the weekend in that race, with Hawick jockey Craig Nichol riding, after previously being with Gavin Cromwell in Ireland.
The six-year-old bay gelding’s owner, Ray Green, saw his colours come second in the corresponding Kelso race last year with Gold des Bois, trained by Thomson and ridden by Hawick’s Jamie Hamilton, so he’ll be hoping to go one better this time round.
Other entries for that race include Cheshire trainer Donald McCain’s Whiskeywealth, with Theo Gillard as jockey, and Alexander and Quinlan’s Hombre de Guerra.
Gates open at 11.30am and the first of seven races is off at 1:35pm, with the last at 5.05pm.
Entry is £24 in advance and £30 on the day. For details, go to https://kelso-races.co.uk/events/edinburgh-gin-chase-day-2025/