Hydrant under no pressure in last at Chelmsford

Good, healthy, outdoor living has been the recipe for Hydrant being able to line up for his 100th race in the last contest at Chelmsford on Saturday.

Richard Guest, his owner and trainer, lavished praise on the 11-year-old, who is a rare middle-distance performer to join the 100 club. However, he has no bragging rights in his stable as he beds down alongside Captain Scooby (182 races) and Outlaw Torn (138 races), who runs in the other division of the 1m2f handicap on the card.

"He's a fantastic old horse and it is quite a feat for him to run 100 races – sprinters can do it but he has run from a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half and remains as well today as the day I inherited him when moving here," said Guest, who moved to Ingmanthorpe in West Yorkshire after previous trainer Peter Salmon retired.

"He hates being in a box – he just worries – so he is out in the paddock all afternoon with Outlaw Torn."

Guest, whose Chelmsford record is four winners from 12 runners, is not ruling out a win on Hydrant's big day.

"He hasn't been suited by muddling races on the all-weather but if things go right for him he would have a chance in a race of that ilk."

Hydrant has won ten of his 99 races and has not missed a year since debuting as a two-year-old in 2008, ridden by Alan Munro for Peter Chapple-Hyam.

"With the low prize-money he races for I couldn't sell him to owners – they would only get 10 per cent of their money back. It's a pity as they would have a great time in the winner's enclosure when he wins his one or two races a year.

"But these old horses are valuable in other ways – teaching apprentices and as lead horses."

9.15 Chelmsford