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1 Colonel Harry 6/1
2
Gaboriot 18/1
3 Excello 7/1
4 Mahons Glory
22/1
5 Johnnywho 17/2
17 ran Distances: 2l, hd, 3¼l
Time: 5m 18.94s (fast by 3.06s)
It's great to see the National fences! 😍
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) November 8, 2025
Colonel Harry wins the William Hill Grand Sefton Handicap Chase 🥇#ITVRacing | @GavinSheehan92 | @jamiesnowden pic.twitter.com/gwkXYlHquY
Colonel Harry shrugged off the market’s doubts to win for Jamie Snowden, Gavin Sheehan and the GD Partnership, producing the sort of late thrust that so often decides these races over the National fences.
Mahons Glory had taken Lee Edwards on a bold, adventurous spin across the famous obstacles and was still giving as good as he got turning for home in the two-mile-five contest, but as they bore down on the last, the pack fanned out and the race tightened.
Colonel Harry, biding his time for much of the way, finally pressed the button on the run to The Elbow. Once in front he stretched on, opening a couple of lengths and never really looking like giving them back. Gaboriot stayed on for second, just edging the ever-prominent Excello, with Mahons Glory clinging on bravely for fourth.
Sheehan told Racing TV: “I loved it. He was into the boards at the first couple, I forced him to make a mistake. At Becher’s I was on a long one and he wasn’t really going forward and I said ‘go on’ and he put down, missed the next, came up at the Canal Turn and from there he started to come alive.
“Off the bridle from three out, just rowing on him, switched him on the outer and going to two out I thought I’m in with a chance; jumped the last, missed it, I still thought I had a chance but to be fair I’d say that’s just his class coming through.
“He’s always been good [at jumping] but he’s a hard horse to work out. Rode him last year in the Colin Parker and he didn’t pick up the bridle for the first couple of fences, ran keen with me, jumped left and got touched off that day and the next day he ran keen away with me the whole race.
“It’s great to see him back, brilliant owners and a fantastic team effort.”
This was Colonel Harry’s first outing since New Year’s Day, the long layoff explained by a nasty setback.
“He took a fall at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day and he didn’t have an open wound but he came back and got a horrid infection in the back leg,” Snowden explained.
“He was in the vets for a couple of weeks and had a couple of operations, he wasn’t reacting to any antibiotics and it just got worse and worse and worse; it was touch and go so a huge credit to the whole team to get him back.
“I was worried it wasn’t going to be soft enough, he’s a horse that loves proper soft ground, but thankfully we got away with it.
“The plan would be to go to Cheltenham in December. I’ve always thought that he would want it [a trip] and then we tried it in the Hennessy but he over-raced and didn’t quite get home, he ran a great race until two out and then folded; never say never he won’t get the trip but at the moment, two and a half miles and soft ground is where we are.”
Grand Sefton Handicap Chase
£85,000 guaranteed, 6yo plus, 2m 5f 19y, Class 2
17 ran
Going: Good to Soft
POS. DIST HORSE AGE WGT TRAINER JOCKEY SP
1 Colonel Harry 8 11-12 Jamie Snowden Gavin Sheehan 6/1
2 2 Gaboriot 9 10-6 Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero Robert Dunne 18/1
3 hd Excello 6 11-0 Nicky Henderson Nico de Boinville 7/1
4 3¼ Mahons Glory 9 11-3 Dylan Cunha Lee Edwards 22/1
5 2½ Johnnywho 8 12-0 Jonjo & A J O'Neill Jonjo O'Neill Jr 17/2
6 nk King Turgeon 7 11-5 David Pipe Jack Tudor 9/1
7 2 Jet Plane 9 11-0 Dan Skelton Harry Skelton 4/1F
8 4¼ Frero Banbou 10 10-12 Venetia Williams Charlie Deutsch 28/1
9 6½ White Rhino 9 11-9 Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero Sean Bowen 8/1
10 6½ Bleu d'Enfer t 7 10-10 Donald McCain Brian Hughes 40/1
FELL Seddon 12 11-6 John C McConnell Alex Harvey 28/1
FELL Our Power 10 11-10 Sam Thomas Dylan Johnston 10/1
FELL Nocte Volatus 10 10-12 Tom Lacey Stan Sheppard 20/1
FELL
Happy And Fine 8 10-5 Alex Hales Kielan Woods 16/1
PU Vintage Fizz 8 10-6 Jedd O'Keeffe Sam Twiston-Davies 12/1
PU Mount Tempest 8 10-10 Sophie Leech Ciaran Gethings 80/1
UR
If Not For Dylan 10 10-2 Lucinda Russell & Michael Scudamore Patrick Wadge 22/1
