Midnight Chase a timely winner for Dougie Costello
Dougie Costello is coming forward from the jockeys’ ranks this season, already closing on his best seasonal total, and he picked up another high-profile victory when Midnight Chase won the Grade Three Morson Group Handicap Chase.
With the ground riding good to soft after a fair soaking the previous day it was important to get a horse in rhythm for what was the thick end of three-and-a-half miles.
Midnight Chase came here having won four of his last five starts, two of them at Cheltenham and all ridden by Costello. Again he let the gelding take the lead and the rest just followed. At least for the first two miles; from there it developed into a war of attrition and the ammunition of stamina had run out for most of them by the fourth-last.
The five left in the chase were led by Junior but he could never quite bridge the gap down the home straight, despite Midnight Chase giving the last fence a fair thump – and it was Any Currency who made late ground for second. Winning trainer Neil Mulholland said: “Once he gets into a rhythm he’s hard to get by. He just loves it here.
“He was put up 9lbs for his last win and we were hoping the handicapper had got it right – but he just keeps improving. We’ll keep him in the grade where he can win – although we don’t know how good he is. But we’d like to keep him at Cheltenham as he goes so here. ”
That win completed a double for Costello who had already ridden Wayward Prince to win the Ultima Frontrunner in IT Solutions Novices' Chase.
Four out Wayward Prince and Balthazar King were disputing the lead but then Chicago Grey arrived full of running for Davy Condon on the home turn. This is the second meeting on the Old course since Cheltenham re-sited the second-last fence. The jury is still out on whether its new position – about a hundred yards after the home turn – is quite right but either way Condon was sentenced to a thumping fall when Chicago Call came down and then brought down Beshebar, who was left with nowhere to go as he landed, leaving Christian Williams with a broken arm.
That left Wayward Prince to outstay Balthazar King from the last, although the runner-up pushed all the way to line and cut down the winning distance to four-and-a-quarter lengths. Ian Williams’ six-year-old was a Grade One winner over hurdles at Aintree last season and the trainer’s initial pessimism was allayed by the jockey’s post-race debrief. “I was initially disappointed with his jumping but Dougie came back in and said they just weren’t going fast enough for him.”
Costello said: “I felt that I was going half-speed – like second gear – but it’s because he has such a high cruising speed and he idles.”
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