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Peter Marsh Chase |
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Peter Marsh Chase 2008 - Haydock Park
14/01/08
Haydock Park hosts a tremendous afternoon’s racing on Saturday, January 19, with the £75,000 Grade Two Peter Marsh Chase (2.00pm) taking centre stage on a superb six-race card that features no less than four Grade Two contests.
The three-mile event regularly attracts an outstanding field, and has been won in the past by Cheltenham Gold Cup winners such as Jodami, The Thinker, Bregawn and Little Owl.
Other victors include the 1998 Grand National hero Earth Summit and a whole host of other big names such as Combs Ditch, Twin Oaks, Zeta’s Lad, Nick The Brief, General Wolfe, The Last Fling, Red Striker, Truckers Tavern and Lord Transcend.
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The two-mile £50,000 Grade Two Bonusprint.com Champion Hurdle Trial (1.25pm) also has an impressive roll of honour and boasts the Champion Hurdle victors Rooster Booster, Flakey Dove and Granville Again among its winners. The 2005 victor, Inglis Drever, went on to lift that year’s Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival while last year’s winner Afsoun subsequently finished third in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle.
An exciting addition to the Peter Marsh Chase day programme in 2005 was the £30,000 Grade Two Anglo Irish Bank Novices' Hurdle, over two miles, which had previously been run at Wetherby and Doncaster. The first running at Haydock saw Malcolm Jefferson’s Roman Ark come home in front, while 2006 witnessed an impressive 12-length victory for the Martin Pipe-trained Nous Voila. Amaretto Rose was a hugely-impressive 18-length victor last year and started favourite for the Anglo Irish Bank Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, finishing third.
Last year’s Peter Marsh Chase Meeting saw the £35,000 Grade Two J W Lees Novices’ Chase (2.30pm), run over two and a half miles, awarded graded status for the first time and it went the way of My Way De Solzen, who scored by 17 lengths and subsequently landed the Grade One Irish Independent Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham.
Both the Peter Marsh Chase and the Bonusprint.com Champion Hurdle Trial
are part of the Order of Merit series. The 2005 winner of the Bonusprint.com
Champion Hurdle Trial, Inglis Drever, subsequently became the inaugural
Order of Merit Champion.
RACE PROGRAMME, HAYDOCK PARK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2008
Time Race Distance Prize Money
12.55pm Anglo Irish Bank Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2) 2m £30,000
* 1.25pm Bonusprint.com Champion Hurdle Trial (Grade 2) 2m £50,000
* 2.00pm Peter Marsh Chase (Limited Handicap, Grade 2) 3m £75,000
2.30pm J W Lees Novices’ Chase (Grade 2) 2m 4f £35,000
3.05pm Sporting Index Handicap Chase 2m £12,500
** 3.40pm Red Square Vodka "Fixed Brush" Novices' Hurdle 2m
4f £6,000
* BBC Televised Races
**Channel 4 Televised Race
For further information, please contact Dickon White, Haydock Park’s Managing Director, on 01942 725963 or 07798 928924, or visit www.haydock-park.co.uk
HISTORY OF THE PETER MARSH CHASE
The Peter Marsh Chase was inaugurated in 1981 and this limited handicap has grown into one of the highlights of the season at Haydock Park, regularly attracting the very best staying chasers.
Four Cheltenham Gold Cup winners have taken the three-mile contest prior to going on to success at Prestbury Park, while there has also been a Grand National winner and a whole host of other top-class performers among the 20 successful horses in the 22 runnings to date.
Little Owl in 1981 was the first winner of the Peter Marsh Chase and went on to victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup that season for trainer Peter Easterby and amateur rider Jim Wilson.
A year later the race was won by Bregawn, who captured the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1983, when he headed Michael Dickinson’s remarkable first five horses home in chasing’s Blue Riband. In fifth place in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup was Ashley House, victorious in the Peter Marsh Chase earlier the same year.
Unfortunately, frost intervened in both 1984 and 1985 and it was not until 1986 that the Peter Marsh Chase was run again, when the David Elsworth-trained Combs Ditch achieved success. Combs Ditch was a high class if somewhat enigmatic performer, who was twice beaten in a photo finish for Kempton’s King George VI Chase.
Arthur Stephenson landed the 1987 renewal with The Thinker, who progressed through the ranks from handicap company to that success and victory in the same year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup. The Thinker ran a fine race to finish third under 11st 10lb in the 1989 Grand National.
The next renewal of the Peter Marsh Chase was in 1989 when the Toby Balding-trained Bishops Yarn came home 30 lengths clear of Cavvies Clown to add to his previous success in the 1987 Glen International Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
Bishops Yarn turned out again for the 1990 Peter Marsh Chase but was unable to cope with John Upson’s high-class young chaser Nick The Brief, who scored by half a length. Nick The Brief followed up in Ireland’s top chase, the Vincent O’Brien Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown, where he lowered the colours of the mighty Carvill’s Hill and went on to win the Irish event (now the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup) again in 1991.
Twin Oaks was a star turn around Haydock Park, winning eight times in total at the course. His victory in the 1992 Peter Marsh Chase was one of his most emphatic as he stayed on resolutely to defeat Gold Options by five lengths.
Yet another future Cheltenham Gold Cup winner was to land the 1993 renewal, when Peter Beaumont’s Jodami came home two lengths clear of Run For Free. He followed up on his Peter Marsh Chase victory in the 1993 Cheltenham Gold Cup and also finished second in that contest in 1994. He was also successful in three Hennessy Cognac Gold Cups at Leopardstown.
Jodami won the Peter Marsh Chase for the second time four years later in 1997 at the age of 12, when he prevailed by a neck from Unguided Missile with Avro Anson half a length back in third in a thrilling finish.
Following Nick The Brief’s success in 1990, John Upson recorded a second Peter Marsh Chase victory with Zeta’s Lad in 1994, while in 1995 Earth Summit made light of the heavy ground to win from 11lb out of the handicap. Three years later Earth Summit recorded another success on his favoured going - this time in the Grand National at Aintree.
Scotton Banks gave trainer Peter Easterby one of the last major successes of his long and distinguished career when landing the 1996 race, defeating Jenny Pitman’s duo of Smith’s Band and the former Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Garrison Savannah. Scotton Banks landed the Martell Cup Chase (now the John Smith’s Bowl) at Aintree the same season.
Two real Haydock Park specialists dominated the three renewals from 1998. General Wolfe, a four-time winner at the course, won his first Peter Marsh Chase when trained by the late Captain Tim Forster in 1998 and followed up a year later for Venetia Williams. In fact, General Wolfe’s two victories followed on from one another - his 1998 win was his last start of the season while his 1999 triumph came on his seasonal reappearance.
In 2000 another Haydock Park hero, The Last Fling, put up one of his trademark gritty displays to deny Bobby Grant by three quarters of a length. The Last Fling won four times in total at Haydock Park, with his richest success coming in the 2000 De Vere Gold Cup (now the Red Square Vodka Gold Cup).
Richard Guest gave a typically inspired ride when guiding Red Striker to victory in 2002, surviving a bad blunder at the eighth fence. Guest had won the Peter Marsh Chase 13 years earlier aboard Bishops Yarn.
The value of the Peter Marsh Chase as a trial for the Cheltenham Gold Cup was proved once again in 2003 when the Ferdy Murphy-trained Trucker’s Tavern was successful at Haydock Park prior to finishing second to the mighty Best Mate in the Cheltenham championship event.
Four years ago Artic Jack defeated Kingscliff by 13 lengths to give
trainer Sue Smith and owner Trevor Hemmings their second success, following
on from The Last Fling four years beforehand. Kingscliff subsequently
proved himself a performer of the highest class, with his victory in
the 2005 Grade One Betfair Chase at Haydock Park.
The 2005 renewal saw a smooth performance from the Howard Johnson-trained Lord Transcend, who came home 10 lengths clear of French raider First Gold.
There was a shock victory in 2006 as Ebony Light defied being 22lb out of the handicap and his 33/1 starting price to score in ready fashion. Trained by Ginger McCain, best known for handling the incomparable three-time Grand National winner Red Rum, Ebony Light produced a superb jumping performance under talented conditional jockey Stephen Craine, coming home nine lengths clear of Kingscliff.
Last year, The Outlier scored by 12 lengths from Turpin Green, who subsequently
finished third in the totesport Gold Cup at Cheltenham behind Kauto Star.
PETER MARSH CHASE ROLL OF HONOUR
YEAR HORSE AGE/WT OWNER TRAINER JOCKEY SP
2007 THE OUTLIER 9-10-03 P J Murphy Venetia Williams
Paul O’Neill
8/1
2006 EBONY LIGHT 10-9-13 Roger Bellamy Ginger McCain Stephen Craine 33/1
2005 LORD TRANSCEND 8-10-04 Andrea & Graham Wylie Howard Johnson
Graham Lee 9/4F
2004 ARCTIC JACK 8-10-06 Trevor Hemmings Sue Smith Dominic Elsworth 6/1
2003 TRUCKERS TAVERN 8-10-09 Margaret Scholey Ferdy Murphy Davy Russell
9/2
2002 RED STRIKER 8-11-01 Norman Mason Norman Mason Richard Guest 8/1
2001 Meeting abandoned due to frost
2000 THE LAST FLING 10-10-12 Trevor Hemmings Sue Smith Seamus Durack
11/2
1999 GENERAL WOLFE 10-10-12 The Winning Line Venetia Williams Norman
Williamson 4/1
1998 GENERAL WOLFE 9-10-10 Winning Line Racing Ltd Tim Forster Norman
Williamson 11/2
1997 JODAMI 12-11-10 John Yeadon Peter Beaumont Norman Williamson 9/2
1996 SCOTTON BANKS 7-11-06 Ian Bray Peter Easterby Russ Garritty 15/8F
1995 EARTH SUMMIT 7-10-04 The Summit Partnership Nigel Twiston-Davies
Tom Jenks 7/1
1994 ZETA’S LAD 11-10-10 Andrew Cohen John Upson Robbie Supple
5/1
1993 JODAMI 8-11-02 John Yeadon Peter Beaumont Mark Dwyer 5/4F
1992 TWIN OAKS 12-11-10 John Moreton Gordon Richards Neale Doughty 5/4F
1991 Meeting abandoned due to frost
1990 NICK THE BRIEF 8-10-09 John Upson John Upson Martin Lynch 15/8F
1989 BISHOPS YARN 10-10-12 British Thoroughbred R & B Toby Balding
Richard Guest 13/2
1988 Meeting abandoned due to snow
1987 THE THINKER 9-11-10 T P M McDonagh Ltd Arthur Stephenson Ridley
Lamb 9/2
1986 COMBS DITCH 10-11-08 Jim Tory David Elsworth Colin Brown 3/1
1985 Meeting abandoned due to frost
1984 Meeting abandoned due to frost
1983 ASHLEY HOUSE 9-10-07 J McLoughlin Michael Dickinson Robert Earnshaw
11/8F
1982 BREGAWN 8-10-07 James Kennelly Michael Dickinson Robert Earnshaw
11/2
1981 LITTLE OWL 7-11-03 Robin Wilson Peter Easterby Mr Jim Wilson 4/6F
