'I'd hope she'd go very close' - one of Britain's youngest and most in-form trainers is hoping for more success

One of Britain's youngest trainers will bid to enhance his excellent recent record on Thursday.

Middleham handler Danny Brooke, 25, who took over from his mother Julia in 2020, is operating at a 40 per cent strike-rate having trained two winners from five runners in the last fortnight, a considerable turnaround from earlier in the year.

"Everything went wrong in the spring," he explained. "We had some sort of bug and it just kept whirling around and it was very frustrating, all the owners are brilliant and hopefully now they're reaping the rewards for that."

Brooke's dual-purpose yard houses just 15 horses but he has registered 12-1 and 13-2 successes with Flavius Titus and Dream Deal on the Flat recently. Now it is time for his team to advertise their skill over jumps as Humps And Bumps (4.25) heads to Stratford for a marathon handicap chase.

Brooke said: "We were quite surprised when we first started running her because she came with good form from Ireland, but three different people rode her and said we were batting against the wind by running her on soft-ish ground.

"We gave her a bit of a break and she's started to take a big step forward. She ran a nice race after a long layoff at Hexham to finish fourth and we took her down to Stratford and she ran a cracker of a race dropped down in trip."

Spotlight verdict

Hurdle/chase winner in Ireland; has never been the easiest to win with but won't be far away with a repeat of her recent third here over 2m6f; it's not a given that she'll stay quite this far 

Humps And Bumps16:25 Stratford

View Racecard

Jky: John Kington Tnr: Danny Brooke

On her claims of registering a first British win, he said: "The trip and ground will really suit her. Hopefully she's in a good vein of form and I'd hope she'd go very close. I'd have thought prices of 12-1 would be a little bit big – I hope so, anyway! 

"The extra trip will really suit how John Kington will ride her, he was adamant the last day she wants to be dropped in and come fairly late."

Brooke hails from a racing family – his brother Henry is an established jump jockey – and he paid tribute to them and his loyal owners for his recent run of success.

He added: "I'm very lucky because mum has a wealth of expertise and Henry and his wife are in all of the time helping out. We've got a fantastic team of staff and owners."

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