Latest Horse Racing News – 26 October 2015

Frankie Fails as Flat Season Finishes

This past weekend saw the final Group One race of the flat season, and it threw up a shock winner. Marcel took the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster after starting the race as a 33/1 shot. It was a third straight victory in this race for jockey Andrea Atzeni, while there was misery for Frankie Dettori.

Detorri was looking to end the flat season with a big win here, capping off what has been a fantastic campaign for him. He rode the unbeaten odds-on favourite Foundation, but he found himself boxed in and unable to make a break. The 10/11 shot ended up third in the race, a major disappointment given it was such a heavily backed runner.

But that disappointment wasn’t shared by all, and trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam was delighted to pick up his third victory in this race as well. He hadn’t won here since 2006, when Authorized came out on top. This incredibly surprising victory showed just how unpredictable racing can be, right ahead of the switch to the jumps season.

That will be kicking off the build up to the Cheltenham Festival, and they announced changes to the starting times at the festival, to provide a longer break between races. The plan should ease pressure on the upgraded facilities, which will please anyone making the trip next March.

One person who is hoping to make that trip is Victoria Pendleton, the multiple Olympic gold medal winning cyclist who swapped track for turf. Her move into racing hasn’t been the most popular with punters, and her fall from favourite Satanic Beat on Saturday certainly wouldn’t have helped matters. It was just her third outing as a jockey, which brought considerably more interest to the Rayner Bosch Car Service Handicap than usual. While Cheltenham won’t be too long coming round, Pendleton has a long way to go.