'It's like watching a grandchild' - homebred gets gold for ex-athletics coach

Wednesday: Ludlow

Having worked at an athletics club that produced Olympic stars Mo Farah and Daley Thompson, Kate Austin knows a thing or two about good runners and her switch to the equine kind is proving successful, with her syndicate celebrating a first homebred winner.

The five-strong The Wife Loves It Partnership had to endure three second-place finishes from six runs before Midnight Centurion could finally take a gold medal. The 4-5 favourite battled off the challenge of Tikitov to strike in the 2m5f maiden hurdle by a neck and while the placings were unchanged after a stewards' inquiry, jockey Page Fuller received a three-day suspension for careless riding.

Austin – who spent time at the renowned Newham and Essex Beagles – was present when the son of Midnight Legend was born, somewhat ironically, in the early hours of the morning and has clearly developed an enormous admiration for the horse.

"That was absolutely thrilling," she said of the Jamie Snowden-trained winner. "I saw this horse being born at 2am, watched him being nurtured and raised at Broadwell Stud, then you wait all that time for these days at the races. Now he's come here and won, I feel like all the time, effort, care and the worries have paid dividends.

"I feel like I've watched a grandchild win a national athletics competition, it's amazing. When I used to coach field athletics, we had some very good athletes in Newham and Essex Beagles [Athletics Club] but now we've got a really good horse. He's genuine and is now starting to become a young man. Hopefully he'll go on to bigger and better things."

Laura Collett, a gold medal-winning eventer from the Tokyo games in 2020, was also praised for her part in the horse's success, providing her expertise to improve Midnight Centurion's jumping.

Big buy

Whizz Kid is the most expensive horse bought in the history of Foxtrot Racing and the €45,000 purchase recorded his second win over hurdles to set up a tilt at a bigger prize.

His sights have been lowered considerably since finishing a long way behind Constitution Hill in the Tolworth on stable debut. The Richard Newland-trained runner scored at Catterick by 27 lengths and obliged in the 2m novice hurdle in similarly easy fashion at odds of 1-6.

Dan Abraham, speaking on behalf of Whizz Kid's ten-member syndicate, said: "We really like him and he's worked quite well at home. We got him from the Arqana sale in France, Richard rang me up and said he had a horse for me but we'd have to open our wallet to get him. I took a deep breath and said let's do it.

"There's a nice race at Sandown [2m novice championship final] on bet365 Gold Cup day or a handicap at Aintree which we might look to go to. He's a horse that this syndicate are going to have some fun with."

Results, replays and analysis

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