Wendigo team hopeful stiff stamina test will bring even more improvement in leading home hope for Albert Bartlett

The ownership team behind Britain’s shortest-priced Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle hope Wendigo believe an attritional stamina test will play right to his strengths.

Wendigo has been a flagbearer for Racing Club Syndicates, winning four of his seven starts for Jamie Snowden and finishing second in the Grade 1 Challow Novices' Hurdle to leading Turners Novices’ Hurdle hope The New Lion at Newbury.

The six-year-old is set to step up to three miles for the first time at the Cheltenham Festival next month and is a general 14-1 chance. Five of the six horses in front of him in the ante-post betting are trained in Ireland, while the other, Jet Blue, is trained in France.

Richard Jaques, a co-founder of Racing Club, said: “Wendigo is one of the first horses we’ve had and his journey has been incredible. He’s a three-mile chaser for the future so the fact he has won two bumpers and performed so well over two and two and a half miles over hurdles bodes really well.

“We hope the step up in trip will bring out more improvement in the Albert Bartlett and it’s been nice to see a few shrewd tipsters have latched on to him. He was beaten by a very good horse in the Challow, but he was staying on into second when most of the others had cried enough.

“There were lots of positives about that run and they should hopefully go pretty quick at Cheltenham, which will help bring his stamina into play.”

Wendigo teed up his Albert Bartlett bid with victory at odds of 1-11 at Wetherby last week – an experience that tested the nerves of connections.

Jaques said: “There’s a bit of pressure given his price for the Albert Bartlett, but there was pressure last week at Wetherby when he won at 1-11! I don’t think I have been so nervous watching a race.

“It wasn’t the highest quality contest but he won in great style and it teed him up for Cheltenham. Wendigo has brought lots of exposure to the Racing Club and it’s great to have such a flagbearer.”

Jamie Snowden: trainer of WendigoCredit: Harry Trump

Racing Club Syndicates was launched in September 2023 and has 20 horses in training, offering a range of microshare, gift voucher and VIP options, with regular updates on horses provided and ballots staged for raceday tickets and hospitality events at Wembley, the O2 and St Mary’s Stadium. There are more than 10,000 shareholders across the group’s horses.

Jaques said: “Myself, Gary [Gillies] and Darren [Colebrook] love racing and have marketing backgrounds so we wanted to use those skills to build a community and get more people involved in the ownership journey.

“We’d like to open the sport up to a younger audience and we have some interesting partnerships coming up with celebrities, who we hope will widen the exposure. We try to offer something different and have a more all-round entertainment package.”

Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, March 14
bet365: 2 Final Demand, 11-4 The Yellow Clay, 7 The Big Westerner, 11 Wingmen, 12 Jasmin De Vaux, Jet Blue, 14 Wendigo, 16 bar.

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