Hot To Trot: Fellowes flying

Flat trainer: Charlie Fellowes

Charlie Fellowes enjoyed his best ever year in 2017, saddling 29 winners in the UK and earning prize money of over a quarter of a million pounds for the first time, so it’s somewhat surprising that this is his first appearance in this column. Though he isn’t sending out lots of runners at the moment, this year has started well for Fellowes, too, with wins from the likes of Vice Marshal and Spun Gold, who was picked up cheaply out of Luca Cumani’s yard last year. Fellowes will be looking to do a similar job with Feathery, who was bought for €23,000 in November from Jim Bolger and has an entry in a fillies’ novice at Wolverhampton on Monday. Another Irish import for Fellowes is the ex-Dermot Weld-trained Light Laughter, who made a promising enough start on her debut for the yard at Lingfield at the end of January. She remains lightly raced and is likely to have sharpened up for the outing, so could be one to note at Southwell on Tuesday (holds entries over six and seven furlongs).

Jumps trainer: Jessica Harrington

Jessica Harrington came away with two winners at last weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival, including a big-race success with Supasundae in the Irish Champion Hurdle, while Jetz came within a head of landing another Grade 1 in the Lacy Partners Novices’ Hurdle. Things are fairly quiet in Ireland in the coming week but Harrington could saddle a couple of runners at Clonmel on Thursday, including Moonshine Bay, who is entered in the Grade 3 Powerstown Novices’ Hurdle over three miles. Moonshine Bay was suited by the increased emphasis on stamina when stepping up to two and a quarter miles at the same track in November, winning a maiden hurdle by six lengths, and the extra three quarters of a mile should bring about even more improvement. Fintara is also entered on the same card. She hasn’t really kicked on over hurdles since winning a bumper last season, but she has had some near misses and now looks set to be sent chasing following a winter break.

Under The Radar: Chris Gordon

When the Chris Gordon yard are hot, they’re really hot – they saddled twelve winners in the space of just sixteen runners in early-March 2017. While they are not quite recording those kind of figures at the moment, they’re certainly in very good form, with career-best efforts posted by Jumping Jack, King Uther, Remiluc, Ballyheigue Bay and Tara Bridge within the last few weeks, and it’s well worth casting an eye over the Gordon runners over the next few days. Ramore Will – entered over both hurdles and fences on Monday at Plumpton – hasn’t had that many starts for the yard and has had one or two excuses recently (found the test of speed against him in a small field last time), so could be of interest if taking up the option over two and a half miles.