Gordon Brown – Race Reporter
Gordon has a wealth of experience of racing through his background in the written and broadcast media. His current principle role is reporting and supporting the scene in Scotland on Racing TV and relaying the latest news with Scottish angles.
Nicky Richards is looking for a big run from Sauce Of Life, who makes his first appearance since a narrow win last December, in the feature race at Kelso.
Racing off bottom-weight, the Greystoke raider lines up in the £12,000 Church House Investment Management Handicap Hurdle over nearly 2m 5f.
“He likes decent ground and it’s nice people that own him,” Richards said. “He might just have won by a neck at Doncaster but the form of that little race is working out pretty well so stepping back up in class shouldn’t bother him.”
Rivals to Sauce Of Life include Lucinda Russell-trained Starlyte, already a two-time course and distance winner this season, and top-weight Fingal’s Hill, who bounced back to form with an impressive all-the-way victory at Newcastle three weeks ago.
The card gets underway with Ann Hamilton-trained Double Digits bidding to back up his Carlisle breakthrough success in the Every Race Live On Racing TV Novices’ Hurdle.
Sent off at 2/7, he made all to score unchallenged and, under a 7lb penalty, is ridden again by Danny McMenamin.
Ewan Whillans has been enjoying a great run of success and Cracking Destiny, the horse that supplied him with his very first winner as a trainer in 2021, runs in the Racing TV Profits Returned To Racing Handicap.
On the verge of becoming a teenager, the gelding is an older half-brother to the yard’s two-time Morebattle Hurdle hero Cracking Rhapsody, who recently bagged the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr.