Rock 'n' roll stars: Oasis-themed horses lead winter jumpers for Richard Spencer

Richard Spencer and the Rebel Racing team are switching their focus from Flat to the jumps this winter, armed with a strong team of jumpers, including three smart youngsters named after Oasis hits.

Wonderwall, Roll With It and Cigarettesnalcohol are those named in tribute to the songs of the iconic 90s Britpop band but perhaps the rock 'n' roll star of the nine jumpers in training at Sefton Lodge is three-time Grade 1 hero Outlander, who finished ninth in last season's Grand National.

Spencer has enjoyed 66 Flat winners since starting out in 2016 and, although his biggest success has come with sprinters such as 2017 Coventry Stakes winner Rajasinghe and Rumble Inthejungle, he is relishing the completely different challenge.

The Sefton Lodge trainer said: "I'm looking forward to it. We're very lucky to be training in Newmarket because the facilities here are very good. We've got a good team of jumpers with plenty of nice ones, they're doing everything we're asking them too.

"It's good for the yard to have a few runners along with the ones on the all-weather. Going to the nicer tracks is a good change so we'll going to enjoy it. We'll certainly going to be targeting all the big meetings."

Rebel racing's owner Phil Cunningham, whose Cockney Rebel won the 2,000 Guineas in 2007, has already tasted big jumps success as a part-owner of 2012 Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Cinders And Ashes, and hopes his musically-themed jumpers can prove a hit on the track.

"The Flat is our main business so this is a bit of a busman's holiday," Cunningham said. "We love going to the big jump meetings and I don't think we get the same enthusiasm going racing if we haven't got a runner.

"This is more of a hobby than work, but we've got a nice little team and Richard's [23 per cent] strike-rate over jumps is impressive."

Of his Oasis-themed three-year-olds, Cunningham added: "I name a lot of my horses after song names - a lot of them are from the 1980s but we're running out!

"We bought four nice store horses [the fourth being Twisted Firestarter, named after a song by The Prodigy] and we're hoping one of them will turn out to be good.

"It's been fun watching them up Warren Hill. They look lovely horses, I particularly like the Yeats, which we've called Wonderwall. He looks a real athlete."

Outlander: won the Lexus Chase in 2017 before joining Spencer in AprilCredit: Patrick McCann

Outlander cost £165,000 when purchased from Gigginstown two days before the National and the triple Grade 1 scorer is set to be campaigned in cross country races before another shot at the Aintree feature.

Spencer added: "We're hoping to start off Outlander at Kelso in December all being well. Going back to Aintree is one of his targets and hopefully we can take him to Cheltenham for the cross country race too.

"He hasn't jumped those fences yet but we'll try him there soon and if he takes to it then we'll look forward to going back there in April."

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