Not So Risky!
Sun 27 Nov 2022
WINNER 118 OF 2022: RED RISK, trained by Paul Nicholls OBE and ridden by Harry Cobden: 'The Coral Racing Club Handicap Hurdle' over 2m 4.5f at Newbury.
Back after a summer break, of 203 days, he was marked up as the 20/1 outsider of the field. AP McCoy did give him a mention on ITV Racing beforehand, suggesting that he had some good form coming into this race....
Setting off in mid division on the outer, his jumping was slick and he travelled well. Harry kept him in this position until they came to three hurdles from home, when he jumped his way into 3rd. Still on the bridle, as others started to go backwards, we were starting to think that he could well finish in the money! Coasting, he led at the final flight, kept on well in the run-in and was ridden out to win by 4 and a 1/2 lengths. His 5th career win and the £21,700 of prize money took him beyond £100k of winnings.
Here's Paul speaking after the race:
Watch the full race replay here: https://www.racingtv.com/videos/watch/horse_racing_replays/421086-coral-racing-club-handicap-hurdle-2
Timeform rated it as a 140+ performance, with their comments to follow.
Harry said in his Racing TV interview, with Lydia: "I didn't think that he was that well handicapped! He travelled lovely, jumped great and quickend up nicely when it mattered. I thought it was a fair performance, from the amount of weight he was carrying and you've got to give him a fair amount of credit."
See the official photo gallery here: https://secure.racingfotos.com/advsearch.tlx?advsearchid=1669548526
Syndicate manager Tom Palin, says: "Congratulations to his owners on a Saturday Class 2 winner, shown on ITV Racing and indeed on, what is historically known as 'Hennessy Day' - even more reasons to celebrate! He jumped superbly all the way around and goes well fresh doesn't he! He is fine this morning and I have given his owners our thoughts on where we might go next with him. He was our 1,399th winner, so Monday's runners have the task of bringing up number 1,400! Our thoughts are with the connections of Porticello today."
It was a superbly timed win, as we offerred some shares in him during our 'Black Friday' promotion the day before, so well done to the shrewd purchasers of shares, who watched him stroll home to a Class 2 win the next day....