Longsdon puts faith in youngsters as he parades string to record crowd

Charlie Longsdon introduced his growing team of promising youngsters to a record crowd of more than 500 at his annual open day at Hull Farm Stables, Chipping Norton.

The event, which Longsdon combined for the first time with his owners' lunch, was a great success and augurs well for a winter season in which he hopes to consolidate, and build upon, all the good work he has done since setting up in 2006 after assisting Nicky Henderson.

Longsdon said: "For the first time we entertained our owners for a brunch of drinks and canapes and then opened the gates to the public in the afternoon. I'm really pleased at the numbers who came, and it all went really well."

He added: "We schooled eight horses, including Monbeg Charmer and some other nice ones, and then we paraded another 60. Pete The Feat isn't back yet, but there were other old stalwarts like Loose Chips, as well as Snow Leopardess, who did nothing wrong last season, Our Kaempfer and so on."

Longsdon topped 50 winners for a sixth successive time in 2016-17 and enjoyed his best ever season in terms of prize-money, earning more than £720,000, plus foreign money.

He reckons his strength this season is in his youngsters and nominated Irish point-to-point winner Jet Set and Worcester bumper winner Monty's Award as two of whom he has particularly high hopes.

He said: "We're gradually building more depth into the string and we've got a big new team of young horses. There are lots of promising ones among them, and I particularly like Jet Set, who won an Irish point-to-point, and Monty's Award, who is from the family of Monty's Pass and won a Worcester bumper last season."