Exciting days ahead for Team Bennett

An exciting few days are in store for Gloucestershire-based owner/breeder Clive Bennett.

An outstanding horse he bred, the brilliant novice chaser Shishkin, lines up in a Gr.2 novices’ chase at Doncaster tomorrow ahead of a crack at the Gr.1 Arkle Trophy Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. On Monday, if the weather is kind, Shishkin’s half-sister Shometheway will make her hunters’ chase debut when running at Hereford in Bennett’s colours, and later in the week Shometheway’s full-brother, Marcle Ridge, will contest a hunters’ chase at Warwick or Wincanton.

Nicky Henderson trains Shishkin, who Bennett sold as a foal, while Shometheway and Marcle Ridge are both under the care of Lucy Smith. The pair were formerly trained by Sam Jukes, who is currently taking a break from training, but remains a part of Bennett’s team, and all three horses were bred in partnership by Bennett and his late wife Eileen. (Smith and Jukes are pictured above with Bennett and Marcle Ridge)

Thirty-four horses have been entered for Hereford’s race, although eliminations are likely given that the safety factor is 14 and the field size – which is affected by the number of stables needed for declared runners in all races – is just nine. Shometheway is guaranteed a run if the meeting goes ahead, but clerk of the course Libby O’Flaherty said today: “It’s a very challenging forecast, involving sleet, snow and rain. Frost sheets are down, but the going is heavy with standing water in places.”

If the meeting goes ahead Smith, who is a daughter of the late champion Jump jockey Terry Biddlecombe, will be hoping to train her first winner. Her first runner, Miss Seagreen, carried Bennett’s colours into third place at Ludlow last week.

Smith says: “Fingers crossed the meeting goes ahead, because Shometheway is in great form at home, and she won on heavy ground at Ffos Las [restricted point-to-point] last season. She’s stepping up from intermediate company, but she would have done that last season but for Covid stopping the sport in March. She’s a beautiful mare, jet black in colour, and she’s easily good-looking enough to lead the Lloyds Bank advert.

“She’s a lovely person, but gets a bit keen because she likes being in front – and she’s by a top stallion in Presenting.”

Shometheway (Sam Jukes) seen winning a maiden race as a six-year-old at Brampton Bryan

Working alongside Jukes for several years Smith has had plenty of time to get to know Bennett’s horses. She says Miss Seagreen has emerged from the Ludlow run in good order, and that Marcle Ridge will run next week ahead of another attempt on the St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Smith says she feels privileged to be part of Bennett’s stable, and says: “Clive is an amazing man. He lost the love of his life when Eileen died [in 2019], but he’s picked himself up and he has done a great job in breeding such wonderful horses.”

She also had a good word for her mum, Ann, who she describes as “a rock”, adding: “I have a little girl of five called Bella who I drop off at Mum’s every day at 6.45am. Mum is even home-schooling her at present. If it wasn’t for her I couldn’t do my job.”

Pony power: Lucy Smith with her daughter Bella