Success for Thorne and Kennedy was perhaps the biggest Christmas cheer of all
Christmas is not all about the big, famous names. It celebrates a birth in a stable after all, not the Ritz hotel.
Of course, our front page was dominated last week by the three wise men, Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins, bearing Yuletide gifts of Bravemansgame, Constitution Hill and Blue Lord/Facile Vega/State Man. But the true spirit of the season – love, hope and joy for all – was probably best seen a long way from Kempton or Leopardstown in a couple of tales that were easily missed amid all the hype for Cheltenham hotpots winning for the big battalions.
Those who stuck it out in the gathering gloom at Doncaster last Thursday had the chance to celebrate a Lazarus-style return to winning ways by Alexander Thorne on Restitution in the conditional jockeys' hurdle.
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