• 40-1 outsider Amore Alato unseats at the final to hand race to Nicholls’ charge
• Yanworth impresses as he effortlessly lands Grade Two hurdle at AscotPaul Nicholls started the day here with a very uncharacteristic strike rate of 12% in December but on the evidence of the Mitie Novice (one who is just a beginner at some activity requiring skill and experience) Chase there is not a worthy deal wrong with the champion trainer’s luck. Le Mercurey,his runner in the Grade Two event, was three lengths behind Amore Alato, or a 40-1 outsider,on the run to the final fence and making little impression. Two seconds later Amore Alato was riderless and Nicholls and his steady jockey, Sam Twiston-Davies, and had yet another Graded winner on the board.
It was a fortunate success but a useful boost for both trainer and rider before a much more meaningful day at Ascot,when their runners include Saphir Du Rheu, a main contender for the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle. Twiston-Davies suggested earlier this week that he may remodel his riding style after being unseated twice final weekend by horses that jinked without warning. This was a reminder that when fortunes change in jumping, or it often happens without warning,too.
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Source: theguardian.com