'It's been special' - Jane Williams finishes tricky 2024 on a high as Saint Segal ends luckless run

Jane Williams' recent good form continued when the luckless Saint Segal ended his near two-year losing run to complete a double for the trainer.

Jonathan Burke replaced the injured David Noonan to guide Williams' stable star to an 11-length victory in the 2m4f handicap chase after Javert Allen had extended his unbeaten record to two with a fine jumping display in the 2m½f handicap chase under Ciaran Gethings.

The double – which was celebrated in raucous fashion by members of Williams' racing club which owns Saint Segal – is a second for the family-run Devon yard in a week after Excelero and Lancealot Allen won at Bangor on Friday.

Williams endured a difficult start to the season when her yard was forced to close with her horses suffering ill heath from rapeseed oil crop in a neighbouring farm, but she has finished the year in fine style.

"Saint Segal owed us", she said. "He's behaving himself better but he's only six and needed to learn how to settle over the two-and-a-half-mile pace. He's switched off and just goes on so that's great.

"This has been a great day out and it's wonderful to be at tracks like this. The owners love it. We have about 30 here in our [Culverhill] racing club and they were all cheering, which was a great feeling. To have two proper horses win like that back to back, it's been quite special."

1.01 club

A frustrating start to the season for Roysse got even worse when the Ben Pauling-trained five-year-old fell when well clear and at basement odds of 1.01 in-running on Betfair.

£1,479 was traded at 1-100 before the leader came down when 29 lengths clear at the last in the 2m½f maiden hurdle. King Califet, part-owned by Newbury chairman Dominic Burke, held off Mistress Emma to win.

Roysse was suffering his second odds-on defeat this season, having led going over the last in a novice hurdle here only to be caught by Hartington in the closing stages.

King Califet was winning on his first start for Emma Lavelle after being bought at the racecourse's Goffs Coral Gold Cup sale last month.

"He's a big chaser for the future and he'll want further than two miles," said Lavelle. "He's always been a lovely horse and he could make into a really nice chaser and this is all part of the development for that."

Last-gasp winner

Believitanducan finished strongly to deny the odds-on Liam Swagger a hat-trick in the 2m½f juvenile hurdle for Alan King and Jonathan Burke.

James Owen intended using the race as a last before the Cheltenham Festival for the runner-up, who looked set to add to victories at Market Rasen and Wetherby when hitting the front approaching the last, but Believitanducan, a smart performer on the Flat, rallied well on his first start over obstacles to win by a length and three-quarters.

King said: "It was pretty good performance from the second-last. It's a good start. As soon as he jumped the first I thought he'd be all right and it's good to have a winner for the Owners Group again."

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