Lucy Wadham out to enhance her impressive course record with Scene One

A good place to start when trying to identify a potential winner at Fakenham is to note any runners for Lucy Wadham, as no-one has trained more winners at the Norfolk venue in the last five seasons.

Wadham is operating at a 28 per cent strike-rate at the track in that timeframe and has a great chance of enhancing that record with Scene One.

It took the seven-year-old six tries to get off the mark over hurdles, but he wasted no time in opening his chase account and scored at the first time of asking over course and distance last month.

He jumped well throughout before putting the race to bed after the last that day and he's entitled to improve for that first start in 200 days. A 3lb rise looks generous for one who could rate a good deal higher over fences.

Lilly Pinchin is a rider firmly on the up, having ridden out her claim last month.

Pinchin too has a great record at the track, with three winners from seven rides (43 per cent strike-rate) this season, and rides Yccs Portocervo, who drops in class after finishing a well-beaten sixth in last month's Grand Sefton. This course winner will be suited by the trip and the ground.

William Cody has been second the last twice and is sure to run well at a track he's gone close at in the past, while Allo Allo needs to be respected down in trip, despite being pulled up the last twice, considering he is 2-3 at the track.
Race analysis by Harry Wilson

Going latest

The going is currently good to soft, soft in places for the Christmas meeting and the last fixture of 2023 at Norfolk track but that could change by post-time as a minimum of ten millimetres of rain is forecast on Tuesday.

What they say

Richard Newland, joint-trainer of Yccs Portocervo
It looks the right race for him and we have a very good jockey in the shape of Lilly Pinchin.

Sophie Leech, trainer of Via Dolorosa
He was bought to run in France but the options over there are limited at the moment, so we thought we'd give him another spin closer to home. He ran a nice race at Sandown the other day and this looks a good contest for him.

Stuart Edmunds, trainer of Allo Allo
We try to run him as often as we can at the track as he's leased by the Fakenham Race Club. He's had excuses the last twice as he got hot on his return and after that he didn't seem to get three miles, so we're dropping him back in trip.

Pam Sly, trainer of William Cody
He's kept bumping into one of late but is consistent enough and we expect another solid run. He's had experience of the track over hurdles and has the best jockey in the race in Gina Andrews, who has ridden lots of winners for me.
Reporting by David Milnes

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