Brave Knight completes hurdles hat-trick to set up tilt at £70,000 prize for Paul Nicholls

Brave Knight maintained his unbeaten record over hurdles when completing a hat-trick in the 2m1f novice.

The four-year-old reached a rating of 84 on the Flat when trained by Sir Mark Prescott before making a successful hurdling debut for Paul Nicholls at Worcester in June.

The son of Sir Percy followed up his latest success at Stratford when scoring by a neck from the Harriet Dickin-trained Dodger Long under Freddie Gingell.

“We had him in the autumn after he’d run on the Flat and I don’t know whether he was a tad jarred up from running in the summer, but he couldn’t jump at all,” Nicholls told Sky Sports Racing.

“We sent him home, reschooled him, and he’s a totally different animal now he’s had a bit of time and he jumps enthusiastically. There’s a 70 grand race at Worcester on September 27 and he had to have a third run to have qualified for that, so that’s where he’ll go next I suspect.”

Lallygag brought up a double for Nicholls and Gingell when justifying 13-8 favouritism in the feature 2m5½f handicap hurdle.

The seven-year-old defied a 5lb rise from victory at Worcester last time, making it two from two since cheekpieces were applied.

Dickin suffered further frustration whe​​​​n Mordred squandered his chance of landing the 2m½f handicap chase with a mistake at the last.

Mordred chased home Beat Box, who has almost recouped the £11,000 Dan Skelton paid for him after he followed up his successful stable debut at Market Rasen under the trainer’s brother Harry.

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