Fakenham’s second meeting of the National Hunt racing season on Wednesday (October 30) is brewing up for a top-class seven-race card after almost 100 initial entries were received. The card is backed by brewers Greene King and among the trio of races it has sponsored is the day’s feature, the £14,000 Greene King Ipa Novice Chase.
There are nine entries for the 2.40pm contest, including Alan King’s six-year-old gelding Timokeo, a winner of both of his previous chases, at Stratford and Kempton.
Also entered is Dan Skelton’s Nube Negra, a winner on chase debut at Warwick earlier this month while Gary Moore’s Ar Mest, a three-time hurdles winner, could make his chase debut for a stable successful in the race last year with Knocknanuss.
Another interesting entry comes from Nick Littmoden’s yard. He has Fleur Irlandaise, a four-year-old filly which was a winner at Dieppe for trainer Yannick Fouin before switching to Littmoden.
An hour earlier it is the Greene King Ipa Handicap Hurdle for which there are 18 entered including Prince Khurram for Donald McCain, the nine-year-old a winner at the start of the month in the Bangor mud.
The 3.10pm Greene King Ipa Hurdle has attracted 13 possibles, including Olly Murphy’s pair Smart Getaway and Todd, who both finished down the field at the first Fakenham meeting of the season over a week ago.
Racing gets under way at 1.10pm with the Pudding Norton Maiden Hurdle in which Nicky Henderson has entered Falco Blitz, beaten into second when odds-on favourite at Newton Abbott when last seen.
There are 11 as yet unraced juvenile fillies in the 2.10pm Sky Sports Racing Hurdle. But one experienced runner who catches the eye is Maria Magdalena from Hales’ yard. She has won three of her eight hurdle contests, including recently at Wetherby.
The 3.40pm David Hall Has Finally Retired Chase has 13 entries including Double Court for Nigel Twiston-Davies, the gelding runner-up at Perth after victory at Southwell had completed a winning hat-trick.
The 4.10pm finale is a NH flat race in which seven newcomers are entered. Most interesting though is Pink Sheets. The mare won at Huntingdon in May when trained by Mick Channon but has since switched to fellow ex-professional footballer Mick Quinn’s stable.
Words by Terry Redhead
