Santini took a large stride towards glory in Cheltenham’s Gr.1 Magners Gold Cup when landing Saturday’s Gr.2 Cotswold Chase at that racecourse.
Ridden by Nico De Boinville, Santini pulled clear of top-class chaser Bristol De Mai on the run-in to win by three and a half lengths and register his sixth win under Rules. He is now trading at around 13/2 for racing's greatest level-weights steeplechase behind last year's winner Al Boum Photo (generally 4/1) and his Willie Mullins-trained stablemate Kemboy (6/1).
Owned by Richard and Lizzie Kelvin-Hughes, Santini was introduced to racing at the Devon stable of Ed Walker, who trained him to win a maiden point-to-point at Didmarton in March 2017 with Will Biddick in the saddle. A week later he was offered for sale at Tattersalls' Cheltenham Festival Sale (pictured above being led up by Ed Walker) but was bought in by Kelvin-Hughes when bidding halted at £150,000. As Walker reflected after the Cotswold Chase: "That looks a good decision now!"
Walker and his wife, Polly Gundry, Britain's eight-time champion rider, were at Cheltenham to welcome in Santini, and reflected that it took some time for the horse to work out his career. Broken in by the couple who saw early signs of a big engine, he was sent unraced to Henderson who six months later sent him back saying he was not up to the job.
Walker said: "He's not a speedy horse, he's just a great galloper, as he proved today. He didn't enjoy being in a big yard initially, so we had him back and he won a point for us before going back to Nicky's."
The Kelvin-Hugheses have four unraced four-year-old pointers in training at Walker's yard.