News
Sunday April 5 2026
Sussex Champion feature heads to Marlborough
Emma Lavelle's hot streak of form continues in the Sussex Champion Hurdle
It's rare for Plumpton to hold centre stage in British racing, but Easter Sunday is one such day when we can showcase the best of Sussex racing. Emma Lavelle continued a recent and timely streak of good form as Ingenuity returned to winning ways in the £50,000 BetGoodwin Sussex Champion Hurdle under Ben Jones.
The six year old has been running in good company all winter, running into the rame at Newbury, Ascot and most recently Kempton. Always prominent, Jones took the Andrew Gemmell and Richard Lavelle - owned gelding tot he front on the home bend, and made the best of his way home for an authoritative 5 1/2l victory. Jones was scoring his 99th winner of the season, and barring injury will achieve a career-first ton as early as this week.
The Marlborough yard's previous 6 runners here this season had drawn blanks, but Indemnity is the sixth winner from the yard's last 19 runners, an impressive 32% strike rate which augurs well for the final valuable 3 weeks of the season, with big prizes on offer at Aintree, Ayr and Sandown.
Easy winner for Team Ditcheat
A glance at Paul Nicholls' choice of racecourses inevitably sees hi at Grade I tracks like Cheltenham, Ascot and Newbury. Among the smaller venues however, he is highly selective, and several are all but ignored.
Not so Plumpton happily where the Ditcheat team has enjoyed 20 winners these past 5 seasons from 73 runners. The latest of these is Inca de la Fayette, a French-bred, who scored a maiden chasewin at the third attempt in the BetGoodwin Top Online Bookie Handicap over 2m4f. Whilst hardly the most competitive race of the day, this Owners Group 100 gelding was in a different league to his rivals. the 22l margin of victory said less about his quality than that of his peers behind him, and he is capable of winning again, even after penalisation from the handicapper. 5lb claimer Jay Tidball is now one winner off reducing his claim a further 2lb.
Another trainer looking forward to a big week in Liverpool is Nicky Henderson, who hosted an enormous crowd of fans to see A-Lister Constitution Hill on Good Friday's Lambourn Open Day at Seven Barrows.
Although Seven Barrows will send a star-studded cast to Aintree, Henderson enjoys a 50% record at our lower profile venue and opened proceedings with warm favourite Eremenko in the mares novices hurdle. Eremenko is no Epetante I'm afraid, and her jumping will need to improve, but she showed good enough speed under Nico de Boinville to win this by 7l, with Emma Lavelle's second runner Pigeon Forge in her wake.
Local winner for Lydia Richards
Time was when Sussex was a little powerhouse of the racing game, but the number of stables has waned from 30 years ago, with the notable exception of the Moores. A short walk up over the Downs would take you to the old Lewes Racecourse, which was part of the Levy Board cuts in the Sixties, but became a small training centre thereafter. Now sadly empty and defunct, a smattering of small handlers make ends meet across the county.
Lydia Richards, who trains largely on the flat nowadays from Funtingdon, near Chichester, is one of this largely unseen band, but when the horses are good enough, her ability is not in question. Two winners from 7 runners at Plumpton this season testify to that, the latest being Shalfa, a seven year old mare who opened her account at the fifth attempt in the Charlotte Savill Memorial Novices Handicap Hurdle.
Marc Goldstein hunted her round in rear till a hurdle from home, and came to challenge at the last, winning by 1 1/2l with a little in hand. The mare barely thought she'd had a race - a textbook waiting ride.
Pritchard rides his finish early
One man leaving Plumpton rather more glum than when he arrived is leading conditional rider Callum Prichard who rode his finish a circuit early on Sweet Nightingale in the BetGoodwin Top Online Bookie Handicap Chase. The 3m 1f contest requires a third circuit of Plumpton's tight track, and the stewards took a dim view of his lack of homework, standing him down for 12 days. That suspension may cost him any chance of reeling in Tristan Durrell, who leads the Conditionals Championship.
Sweet Nightingale, having been let down at the post, did pick up again from the rear of the field, but the surprise package winner Milan Milos came from behind under Conor O'Farrell, having been outpaced at the 13th of the 18 fences, and led close to home to win by 1/2l for Worcestershire handler Tom Gretton.
Not Pritchard's finest hour, but no jockey is faultless, that we all know.
Just four runners faced the starter in the 2m 1f handicap chase once Gold Souk had been withdrawn through lameness.
Alex Hales is one of three trainers making good use of the famous Edgcote Estate near Banbury, once home to the Courage owned horses like Spanish Steps. There's nothing of that quality there presently, but Away For The Night scored a maiden Rules victory under Bryan Carver with 3/4l to spare over Sea Thrift from Daisy Hitchins' yard in Somerset.
Hales is starting the Spring with a flourish, this his third winner from five runners in the past few days.
The across-the-card sponsorship by BetGoodwin included the concluding BetGoodwin Master Trainer Chris Gordon Handicap Hurdle. No surprise therefore to see the eponymous Hampshire trainer trying to win back his yard sponsor's prize, and so he did, re-enforcing Gordon's arrival at the top of racing's tree in this breakthrough season.
Washington Singer and Jockey Tom Cannon had clearly read the script beforehand. Despite not showing a great deal in 7 previous runs, the seven year old gelding rose to the occasion in good style, leading at the home bend, surrendering the lead approaching the last, and finding more after to win by a length, Market House from James Owen's in second.
That's the yard sponsorship secured for another 12 months then, Chris.
