No Luck For Irish Challengers at Stratford

 Image © Healy Racing

There was no luck for either of the two Irish challengers in the pointotpoint.co.uk Champion Novice Hunter Chase for the John Corbet Cup at Stratford on Friday.

The near three-and-a-half-mile contest is a race that Irish raiders have found good fortune in, with Lord Fingal, Quiet Account, Vaucelet and Ask D’Man all returning victorious within the past decade, however neither The Rebel County or Kings Jet were able to better that in the 2025 edition.

The Irish pair were sent off as the joint favourites having both entered the race following hunter chase successes on this side of the Irish Sea, with Kings Jet a surprise winner at Down Royal, whilst The Model County had won in Tipperary to supplement his Ballyknock point success.

It was The Model County who raced closest to the pace that was set by the eventual winner Jeux d’Eau, and he still held every chance entering the back straight on the final circuit, before his inexperience in the jumping department came to the fore.

Garrett Ahern’s five-year-old was outjumped four-out, and he then parted company with his handler’s son Josh at the next obstacle, whilst in third and fading at the time. 

Kings Jet only last a further fence as he was struggling in behind following a mistake of his own four-out, and he was pulled up as the tempo that Jeux d’Eau set had many out of their comfort zones.

In the end, the Huw Edwards-ridden seven-year-old, a Chaddesley Corbett winner in mid-April, who had been a beaten favourite in a pair of hunter chases earlier in the season, returned eight lengths clear of Red Delta.

The runner-up representing the Cheltenham Festival combination of John Dawson and Fiona Needham, who had won the 2023 edition with the late Sine Nomine, who went on to win in Cheltenham the following year.

“He stays very well and they have put plenty of water on today which probably suited him,” Edwards said.

“I knew that he would stay the trip very well, so I wanted to make it a good test of stamina. He keeps finding and was very good.

“He does always jump out to his right, he was worse though today, so we will have to get him home and have a look at him. 

“He will be put away until next season now.”