Have Kim Bailey and David Bass won a Grade 1 race?

The short answer is yes, they have; just one, but a landmark victory all the same. In his heyday, Bailey won the Grand National with Mr. Frisk in 1991 and completed the Champion Hurdle – Cheltenham Gold Cup double with Alderbrook and Master Oats in 1995. However, prior to January 23, 2021, he had failed to win another Grade 1 race for 9,444 days, or nearly 26 years. Nevertheless, on that day, he saddled the 9-year-old First Flow, ridden by David Bass, to win the Clarence House Chase at Ascot and record the third Grade 1 victory of his training career.

Reflecting on his success, Bailey said, ‘I was absolutely staggered, to be honest, because we both felt the ground wasn’t going to be soft enough and that if he had finished third he would have done very well. I admit I didn’t expect him to improve like that.’

Winning jockey David Bass also had two previous Grade 1 wins to his name, the Challow Hurdle at Newbury in December, 2015 on Barters Hill and the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March, 2017 on Willoughby Court, both trained by Ben Pauling. Bass, who was recently elected Jumps President of the Professional Jockeys’ Association (PJA), began his riding career with the late Richard Phillips, before moving to Nicky Henderson – for whom he won the Swinton Hurdle at Haydock on Eradicate, as a 7lb claimer – and subsequently striking up a fruitful association with Bailey.

 

How many races has Golden Sixty won?

How many races has Golden Sixty won? While some of us may have experienced big win casinos in australia, Golden Sixty – a son of outstanding American dirt winner Medaglia d’Oro – was born there (before being exported to Hong Kong as an unraced three-year-old in October, 2018). Indeed, he has raced exclusively at Sha Tin, where, at the last count, he has won 17 of his 18 starts, including the last 14 in a row, and amassed over £7.35 million in prize money.

Owned by Stanley Chan Ka Leung, trained by Francis Lui Kin-wai and ridden, exclusively, by Vincent Ho Chak-yiu, won his first three starts, all over 6 furlongs, before tasting defeat for the one and only time on his first attempt at 7 furlongs in July, 2019. However, that proved only a momentary ‘blip’ and he continued his progress through the ranks, graduating from handicaps to Group Three, Group Two and, eventually, Group One company.

A strong-travelling, hold up type, Golden Sixty is blessed with an extraordinary turn of foot, which has often seen him clock under 22 seconds for the final quarter of a mile of his races. That an impressive as any rivernilecasino online casino winning run! Now a 5-year-old, in 2021, he has won three Group One races, the Stewards’ Cup, Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup and FWD Champions Mile, by a head, a short head and a head, respectively. Sooner or later he may be beaten but, for now, his winning streak continues.

Is Ben Curtis stable jockey to Mark Johnston?

Although only in seventh place in the 2021 Flat Jockeys’ Championship, which is decided on winners between May 1 and October 16, Ben Curtis has made quite an impression since moving to Britain from his native Ireland in 2013. Born in Kinsale, County Cork on August 5, 1989, Curtis shared the Irish apprentices’ title with Joseph O’Brien and Gary Carroll in 2010 and, in Britain, has ridden over 50 winners in each of the last eight seasons. Indeed, he has ridden over 100 winners in the last four seasons and, in 2020, rode 170 winners in the calendar year, which was more than any other jockey in the country.

Interviewed in January, 2021, Middleham trainer Mark Johnston stated that Curtis would ride ‘more and more’ for his Kingsley Park yard during the year, although he was keen to point out that he does not have a formal arrangement with any jockey. He said, ‘…’the last formal retainer I had with any jockey was Kevin Darley [who retired, at the age of 47, in 2007], and that ended in about 2006.’ Johnston habitually uses the best jockeys available but, in recent years, has relied principally on Joe Fanning and Franny Norton, both of whom turned 51 during 2021. Consequently, he is keen to forge a relationship with a younger jockey who can take the place of one, or both, when they do eventually retire. In 2021, so far, Johnston has supplied Curtis with 48 winners from 284 rides at a strike rate of 17%.

Which were the top three novice hurdlers in 2020/21?

Granted that Irish-trained horses won 23 of the 28 races at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, it should come as no surprise that two such horses, both Festival winners, topped the ratings in the novice hurdle division, according to Timeform. Those horses were Appreciate It (160p), trained by Willie Mullins, and Bob Olinger (159p), trained by Henry de Bromhead, although My Drogo (156p), trained in Warwickshire by Dan Skelton, was adjudged just 3lb inferior to the Irish pair by the venerable ratings organisation.

Beaten favourite in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, Appreciate It opened his account over hurdles, at odds of 1/12, in a modest maiden hurdle at Cork in November. Thereafter, he raced exclusively at Grade 1 level, winning the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas and the Chanelle Pharma Novice Hurdle, over the same course and distance, in February en route to the Cheltenham Festival. In the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Appreciate It was sent off 8/11 favourite and, having travelled and jumped well, held an unassailable 6-length lead at the final flight. At that point, his nearest pursuer, stable companion Blue Lord, fell, leaving him to come home in splendid isolation, 24 lengths ahead of Ballyadam.

Interestingly, Bob Olinger was beaten by Ferny Hollow, erstwhile conqueror of Appreciate It in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, on his hurdling debut at Gowran Park in November. However, he was impressive when making all to win, by 14 lengths, at Navan the following month and, like Appreciate It, spent the remainder of the season in Grade 1 company. He made short work of the aforementioned Blue Lord in the Lawlor’s of Naas Novice Hurdle at Naas in January, winning easily by 6½ lengths and, in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, cruised home by 7½ lengths and 4½ lengths from Gaillard du Mesnil and Bravemansgame.

According to trainer Dan Skelton, the 2021 Cheltenham Festival never was the ‘be-all and end-all’ for My Drogo, whom he considers ‘every inch a chaser’. A steeplechaser in the making he may well be, but that didn’t stop him from winning all four starts over the small obstacles in 2021, culminating with the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree in April. On that occasion, he beat Minella Drama by 9 lengths, eased down, with a below-par Ballyadam only a distant fourth, beaten 43 lengths.

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