Flying start after frustrating season bodes well for century target

After a largely downbeat 2017, Ralph Beckett has hit the ground running in 2018 with nine winners in April – among them a couple at the Craven meeting and an unusually early two-year-old strike – plus a pair of Group races in France for stable stalwart Air Pilot.

Such a bright start stands in contrast to last season, when the Kimpton Down trainer's winners total dropped to 66. It wasn't a complete disaster – more than a million pounds was won at home – but given Beckett had reached three figures for the first time the previous season, it was a bit of a blip.

"It was frustrating," he admits. "We didn't have a runner in the first two weeks of August, which is an unusual way to go for any operation. We got to the end of Goodwood and realised things weren't going our way. A low-grade viral infection clobbered us in July, then the two-year-olds got ringworm, so it wasn't at all what I'd hoped for, but I'd lived a charmed existence for ten years in a row and perhaps it was just my turn."