Newbury Racecourse: Lizzie Kelly does it again - Betfair Hurdle triumph on outsider Agrapart
Nick Williams & Lizzie Kelly & trophiesJockey Lizzie Kelly, who works for Neil King's Ridgeway Racing at Burderop close to Barbury Castle, has done it again.
In December she became the first woman jockey to win a grade one race - guiding Tea for Two to win the Kauto Star Novices Chase at Kempton. Now she has won Britain's richest handicap hurdle riding Agrapart to an eleven length victory in the Betfair Hurdle - and an £88,000 first prize.
While Tea for Two had been a fancied entry in a seven horse field, at Newbury on Saturday (February 13) she faced a field of 21 other horses riding an outside chance that went from 20-1 to 16-1.
In the process she beat the much fancied Mullins-trained entry Blazer (who came home ninth) and Paul Nicholls' Modus (hampered at the fourth fence by faller Dicosimo) - one of five entries in the race for owner J.P. McManus.
Agrapart is trained by Lizzie's step-father, Nick Williams who was very impressed by Lizzie's ride in a big field race with testing ground: "As a rider, she has got better and better and I thought this was a nice, cool performance. She is very cool with a head for the big occasion."
"[Agrapart's] not entered in anything at Cheltenham. We didn't really think that Cheltenham was particularly his track - he is very much a soft/heavy ground horse as well - so we didn't make any entries for the novice hurdles there."
The David Pipe-trained gelding Starchitect was chasing Agrapart but made a terrible hash of the final flight. Lizzie Kelly rode on to take the race: "In a way it is a surprise because this kind of race...they are very kind of kamikaze and you have to have a good run. He was brilliant - he did it for me."
Before the race: leaving the parade ring 
Agrapart leads Starchitect into the last (photo: Newbury Racecourse)
The winner's enclosure
"It has been a great season and I have beaten all the goals I set myself. I am lucky that my parents are able to put me up on good horses and let me just be a jockey and get on with it. I am also grateful for the support I have had from owners."
"I have always thought jockeys should celebrate more when they win. These big days are not guaranteed. I also lost a close friend recently which reminded me that we are not invincible and are all human beings."
Newbury's Betfair Super Saturday was, as one headline put it, a day for "Girl Power". First season trainer Kerry Lee's Top Gamble winning the Betfair Exchange Chase with Richard Johnson aboard - beating the 6-5 favourite Dodging Bullets. Last year she took over the Presteigne yard from her father Richard Lee. Top Gamble was her sixteenth winner.
It was thought the meeting would be a tussle for supremacy between Paul Nicholls and the Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins, but the laurels mostly went elsewhere on a rain soaked but crowded and cheerful day's racing.
'The Tank'If an up and coming young woman jockey and a newly licenced woman trainer stole the headlines, the crowd may remember most the emotional return to Newbury of Denman.
Now rising 16 years-old, 'The Tank" - as he was known - was applauded in Newbury's parade ring before racing started, and then led out the entrants for the race named after him - the Class One Betfair Denman Steeple Chase.
Denman gets the feel of Newbury's turf againAs soon as he was out on Newbury's track he seemed to come to life: "He really wants to join in - pity he can't", said a Denman fan watching from the stands.
After he had taken the field down towards the start, he was galloped at incredible speed back along the track and over the finish line - to cheers from the crowd.
He certainly looked superb - much better than his age implies. Fit for a race, but not for a repeat of his famous Gold Cup win. That is racing history.