Bumper eight-race card for Warwick's Kingmaker Day
Saturday's Kingmaker Day is one of the highlights of the Warwick season and, with a bumper eight-race card, it promises to be a good afternoon of racing with, hopefully, some pointers to next month's Cheltenham Festival.
Top of the bill is the £75,000 Bet Smarter With OddscheckerKingmaker Novices' Chase and, over the years, this Grade 2 contest has proved a stepping stone to success at the Festival, with Gold Cup winner Long Run and Champion Chase winners Finian's Rainbow and Vor Por Ustedes, who won the Kingmaker at Wincanton after Warwick's meeting had been abandoned, amongst those on the roll of honour.
More recently, the 2022 winner Edwardstone went on to win the Arkle Challenge Trophy at Cheltenham in the same year, to be followed in 2023 by Jonbon, who has now won 14 chases in all and amassed over £1.5m in prize money
Last year's winner L'Eau du Sud, was trained by Dan Skelton and he has entered Mirabad who unseated his jockey when in the lead at Windsor on his last outing. Ben Pauling, who is having his best season for prize money won, has entered both Mambonumberfive, who would be seeking a four-timer over fences, and Meetmebythesea, who has an alternative engagement in the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury the same afternoon.
The exciting Lulamba is the highest-rated entry but, along with second-highest rated Steel Ally, he is also entered at Newbury, so with three of the six entries possibly going elsewhere, it looks likely to be a small field and a race of quality over quantity.
Racing will start 35 minutes earlier than originally scheduled at 12.40pm and will now include the Grade 2 Weatherbys Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices Hurdle transferred from Friday's Sandown Park card. Another race restricted to mares is the £30,000 Get The Best Odds With Oddschecker Warwick Mares' Hurdle which has attracted eleven entries including the 139-rated Jubilee Alpha, three times a winner over hurdles and runner-up to Nurse Susan last time. Nurse Susan is trained by Dan Skelton who will know where he stands with his two entries and Irish-trained Good Girl Kathleen would add some spice to the race.
There are some old favourites entered in the Cass 2 Unibet Middle Distance Series Veterans' Handicap Chase (Series Qualifier) including the Skelton-trained Le Milos, winner of the race last year and just 1lb higher in the weights now. Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies have entered course winners Torn And Frayed, who rarely runs a bad race, and Guard Your Dreams, who has not been seen out since May.
Last Kingdom, formerly trained by Willie Mullins, is an interesting entry for Faye Bramley in the Class 3 Best Cheltenham Odds With Oddschecker Handicap Hurdle in which both Skelton and Olly Murphy have three to choose from, before the Total Metal Recovery Mares' Open National Hunt Flat Race at 4.45pm brings the afternoon to a close.
The Jockey Club, which has Warwick racecourse amongst its portfolio, has announced that prize-money in 2026 will exceed £60m, up £3m on last year. The bulk of the extra money will be targeted at one fixture, the Betfred Derby, with the historic feature race now worth £2m.