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.
Long-standing owner Ray Green is looking forward to more Kelso success on Sunday with Gold Des Bois in the feature race at the Borders track.
Trained by Iain Jardine, he is one of four quality runners in the £40,000 NSPCC School Service Simply Ned Handicap Chase over 2m 1f.
The Dumfriesshire raider has been raised 5lbs for a fluent victory at Kelso’s opening fixture in mid-September and Green said: “He was second in this race last year on what was his first run for us since coming over from Ireland. This has been the target again and, fingers crossed, he will go one better this time!”
The horse that beat Gold Des Bois twelve months ago is Ann Hamilton-trained Nuts Well, the top-rated entry on 153, who is bidding for a fourth success in the race as he was also the winner in 2018 and 2020.
Lucinda Russell loves introducing nice jumping prospects at Kelso and highly-rated Haute Estime makes an eagerly-awaited debut over fences in the RacingTV 100% Profits Returned To Racing Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase.
The strapping mare was an impressive winner of the novices’ hurdle on this same card last year and went on to finish third at 100-1 in a Grade 1 contest at Aintree’s Grand National meeting.
Russell said: “She was born to be a chaser and has been schooling like a natural over fences at home. This is a good starting point and we withdrew her at Perth recently because of the ground just as a precaution.”
Dianne Sayer recorded the first treble of her career at Perth last week and the Cumbrian handler is double-handed in the opening Welcome To Family Day Handicap Hurdle with Jackhammer and recent Kelso scorer The Navigator.