Rerouted Brendan Powell helps Ali Stronge secure first jumps winner of the season

Brendan Powell was due to ride in four of Ludlow’s seven races on Wednesday, but after that meeting was abandoned due to frost, the rider rerouted to Southwell where he steered Ardmayle to success in the feature 2m handicap chase.

Daryl Jacob had initially been booked to partner the Ali Stronge-trained 11-year-old, but it was Powell, who first rode Ardmayle in a Towcester novice hurdle in February 2017, who did the honours to help the veteran record a seventh career win.

“My husband Sam is Brendan’s agent and he’s also Daryl’s agent, but when Ludlow got called off this morning it made sense to stick Brendan back on him because he knows Ardmayle,” said the winning trainer.

Ardmayle was a first jumps winner this season for Stronge, whose husband has added the likes of Harry Cobden and Nico de Boinville, as well as Powell and Jacob, to his roster of 28 clients since returning for a second spell as an agent last year.

Stronge said: “I’ve definitely got a far smaller team of horses now. I’ve only got a couple for the jumps now Sam’s back as a jockeys’ agent and I’ve got a young family as well.

“In the current climate of staffing and – although prize-money today was very good – just the cost of everything, it’s probably not a bad time to scale back and concentrate on a small number of horses."

Compensation for Jacob

Despite missing out on Ardmayle, Jacob did not leave the Nottinghamshire track empty-handed as he helped Dom Perry make a winning stable debut for Hughie Morrison when just denying the Robbie Dunne-ridden Jumping Jupiter in the 2m maiden hurdle.

Dunne then gained some compensation when taking the 3m2f handicap hurdle aboard The Skiffle King for Charles and Adam Pogson.

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