Knight’s Losing Streak Ended

At the age of sixty-two, Henrietta Knight knows that the sport of horse racing is unpredictable. She has had some of the best horses in her stables, including the legendary Best Mate and Edredon Bleu. She has enjoyed the exhilaration of big victories in jumps racing events such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the King George VI Chase, the Ericsson Chase and the Clonmel Oil Chase. But of late, from approximately May this year, there has been nothing to celebrate. Victories have eluded her, and she has been doing everything in her power to find out where the problem lies.

Fortunately for Henrietta Knight her six months of worrying are now over. The last two weeks have proven to be just what she needed, with Somersby winning on Wednesday, 26 November 2008, and Cross Kennon breaking her losing streak the week before that. Fans and spectators had been hoping this moment would come, to see Henrietta Knight back on top and greeting the press with her warm smile in the winner’s circle.

Somersby, like his stable mates Racing Demon and Best Mate, was bought from the well known Tom Costello in Ireland, and is owned by Camilla Radford. Described as a well balanced horse, Somersby is a big horse and it is expected that he will grow into a great chaser. On Wednesday, jockey Dominic Elsworth seemed to have all the answers, winning three racing events that day, including guiding Somersby to a magnificent victory in the Take A Break / EBF National Hunt Novices’ Hurdle. The victory absolutely delighted Knight, who still has no idea why she suffered such a terrible losing streak for six months. After entering the winner’s circle to stand next to Somersby for winning the Take A Break / EBF National Hunt Novices’ Hurdle, she turned the press and jokingly said: “I thought you might have forgotten what I looked like.”

Knight has not made any commitment as to where Somersby will be starting next, but has said that she will probably be looking to run him one last time this season. For now, the trainer is only grateful that she has overcome her mysterious slump, and can eventually start looking towards next season without any worries. Somersby has proven to be a fantastic jumps racing horse. Any form of horse racing remains unpredictable, but these last two weeks definitely belonged to Knight.