Local boy does good as Alan King lands Scottish Champion Hurdle with Favour And Fortune

On a day when championship-chasing rivals came from Ireland, Somerset and Warwickshire, there was a big win for a local man in the Coral Scottish Champion Hurdle.

Alan King may be based at Barbury Castle in Wiltshire but he was born in South Lanarkshire, came racing at Ayr as a youngster and had his first job in the sport working at Cree Lodge next door.

So he was delighted to see Favour And Fortune land the £100,000 contest under Tom Cannon, giving him a second success in a race he first took with Raya Star in 2012.

"It's always lovely to come back up here," the trainer said. "We always try to bring a team up for this meeting, having worked across the road many years ago. It's good to come home. I won this with Raya Star and this is smashing."

King was convinced that the local weather was the key to success for Favour And Fortune, who finished sixth in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham.

"For the last four months I've been saying I want this horse on good ground," he said. "He's been running very well on heavy but he's a beautiful-actioned horse. His jumping was so much better today.

"He ran very well at Cheltenham and he nearly fell at the first and he was only beaten ten lengths in a good Supreme. I've always loved him and he's certainly the best of my novices. 

"It's been a difficult season for him and this was the last chance we had to run him. I'd like to stay over hurdles with him, he's not had a lot of racing."

Oscar sees off the big boys

Willie, Dan and Paul who? Ann Hamilton has made a habit of upstaging the bigger names and she did it again with Tommy's Oscar.

She has just a handful of horses in her Northumberland yard but she got the better of championship-chasing trio Mullins, Skelton and Nicholls in the £50,000 2m½f handicap chase.

Tommy's Oscar wins his 12th race under rulesCredit: John Grossick

Tommy's Oscar, owned by her husband Ian, took his career earnings past £250,000 as he defied top weight to land the 12th win of his career under rules with a two-and-a-half-length success under Danny McMenamin.

Ian Hamilton said: "It's quite an occasion, beating all these top horses from the south and Ireland. It was a great performance. Last time at Doncaster he jumped to the right too much. We knew he would go well because he's fresh again. 

"Everywhere we go he has 12st but he carries it very well, it's amazing how he does because he's a light-framed horse."

Victory was a reward for the individual care and attention the Hamiltons give the horses, even if that means extra time on the roads travelling home and back again between the two days of racing here.

"My wife made me drive 725 miles because he just doesn't settle if we stop overnight," Hamilton said.

Mark of a champion

Patrick Wadge virtually sealed the conditional jockeys' championship by landing the mares' handicap hurdle on Czech Her Out for boss Lucinda Russell, moving him seven winners clear with a week left. 

"Patrick is having an amazing season, he is riding with such a cool head," Russell said.

The trainer's partner Peter Scudamore is Wadge's mentor and he said: ""If he is champion conditional, it will be one of my proudest moments in racing.

"I was brought up under David Nicholson who taught you correctly. I'm not saying I teach as well as him but it is a proper legacy."

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