'It's going to be a historic night' - £100,000 pot attracts maximum field

Phoenix Utilities Ltd Lanark Silver Bell Handicap (Heritage Handicap) | 3yo+ | 1m4f | RTV

Staging its first ever £100,000 race has paid off for Hamilton Park as a maximum field of 15 runners – with 19 wins between them in 2022 – has been declared for Friday night's Phoenix Utilities Ltd Lanark Silver Bell.

The 1m4f race, whose history dates back to the early 17th century, has become a heritage handicap and nearly trebled in value from the £36,000 it was previously worth.

It leapfrogs the £55,000 Glasgow Stakes as the track's richest race and racecourse managing director Ashley Moon, whose predecessor Vivien Currie has just taken charge at Ascot, said on Thursday: "It's a big moment for Hamilton Park and it's going to be a historic night.

"We felt that coming off the back of some very challenging times, it was an ideal opportunity to invest in a historic race. It's part of our overall investment in prize-money for the year: every race this season has been run for at least £2,000 above minimum value and our feature races are significantly higher than that.

Ashley Moon with the Lanark Silver Bell trophyCredit: Hamilton Park

"It's not an easy thing to do but we've been able to manage our budget to make that prize-money available."

Moon also expects the investment to pay off at the turnstiles and said: "Attendances are challenging, we are seeing a drop, but tomorrow looks like it should be on a par with 2018 and 2019."

Trainer Mark Johnston welcomed the way Hamilton has bucked the trend of small field sizes and said: "I'm on the board so I'm obviously biased but it's fantastic credit to the new management team.

"They taken the bull by the horns, put the prize-money on, got the message across that they've put the prize-money on and they're fighting the trend successfully as a result.

"It's a seriously competitive race. I've won the Lanark Silver Bell before, I target it and we've got two runners. I'd love to win it but I can't be confident because it's a hell of a good race, despite the geographical challenges and the current challenges of the horse population because they put on the prize-money, as simple as that."

William Haggas, who has won with the two previous runners he has sent up to Hamilton from Newmarket this season, sends out likely favourite Pride Of Priory, who completed a hat-trick when scoring at the Shergar Cup at Ascot.

"We've been very keen to support racetracks that put on good prize-money," the trainer said. "They're doing a good job.

"We've won this race a couple of times in the past and it would be very nice to try to win it tomorrow. Pride Of Priory has got a chance, he's improving."

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