Into the Valley once more for Sankey

For those who appreciate a true amateur and a winning horse one of the most compelling hunters’ chase victories of the season came at Ludlow in late March.

On his first ride under rules Shropshire’s Guy Sankey (above) and six-year-old Great Valley downed no less a horse than the Dan Skelton-trained Jet Plane after a no-prisoners-taken final circuit in which every jump required precision. Proven handicap chaser Jet Plane, who had finished runner-up in last year’s Aintree Foxhunters’ Chase, would surely make the new kid flinch first, but by the penultimate fence it was Great Valley who was inching ahead and at the line he had established a lead of six lengths over his gallant rival – who, it should be added, conceded 15lb.

Today at Warwick, Sankey and Great Valley bid for a follow-up in the Connolly’s Red Mills Open Hunters’ Chase (4.30), the two-miler on an all hunters’ chaser card which has been moved from Cheltenham while drainage work is being carried out.

Asked how he was feeling ahead of his next test on Great Valley, 7lb claimer Sankey, who is six feet and several inches tall, said: “Lean. Feeling hungry, but thanks to the win at Ludlow he carries a 3lb penalty. I tend to sit around 11st, so I have to watch what I eat – and I’m getting older.”

At 33 Sankey is not a veteran, but as a chartered surveyor with a desk-based job in Birmingham he has to call upon an Equiciser to provide the muscle-toning opportunities which others would acquire by riding out. Once-a-week trips to Great Valley’s trainer, Bishops Castle-based Neil Gittins, is all the saddle time that can be fitted in. Gittins also trains Blagthebookies, an eight-year-old who has won four point-to-points under Sankey’s wife Iola.

Sankey says: “We’re having a great ride – a lot of fun. We’re very lucky to have this horse [Great Valley]; he’s one in a lifetime and we’re enjoying every moment. Winning at Ludlow, my one and only ride under rules, was memorable, but I didn’t want to do it unless I felt I had a chance of winning. I enjoy point-to-pointing too much.”

And hunting, and it has been through following hounds that Sankey and a group of mates have come together to form Three O’Clock Fox*, the syndicate which owns Great Valley. Formerly trained by Skelton, for whom he was placed in several juvenile hurdle races at three and four, he was acquired privately following advice from Yorton Stud’s Dave Futter.

Sankey says: “Neil is a hunting pal of mine, a very well-known field master and a very good man across country. When I used to take my pointers hunting he would say to me, ‘It’s time you got yourself a decent hunter’, yet now the tables are turned. He decided to take up training pointers, and while he’s not been doing it long he’s a really good nagsman with any type of horse.

“When he got Great Valley he took him back to basics [early in 2024] and we had no intention of running him that season, but Neil was riding him around the farm and said he wasn’t taking a lot of getting fit so we ran at Eyton.”

It was a winning debut for the partnership, which the following season started the campaign with an opening-day run at Knightwick. One of four runners in a restricted they finished second to – none other than – Barton Snow, who is now the leading hunter chaser on either side of the Irish Sea.

Sankey says: “I said to Neil before the race ‘This Barton Snow is an interesting horse – it’s run in 10 bumpers, but hasn’t won one’. Our horse was only four, and when the leader ran out we were left in front with a mile or more to run. Barton Snow came and took us on over the last three fences, and with his experience we were very encouraged to be only beaten three lengths.”

Great Valley (Guy Sankey), still only six, but a rising star of the hunters’ chase scene (Marilyn Sweet Photography)

The learning curve continued at Larkhill the following month, in a race which Sankey says: “Did not go our way. James King set the pace at a crawl and my horse was very keen to go quicker, and while we took it up three out we were close enough to the last and three horses went past. I was learning about the horse and it was a decent race with something like nine of the runners subsequently winning races.”

Sankey and Great Valley are unbeaten since, with five point-to-point victories, plus that hunters’ chase success at Ludlow, which he describes as “the most enjoyable race I’ve ever been in”. He says: “We took it up [at the ninth of the 17 fences], but Heidi [Palin on Jet Plane] didn’t want another horse to get too far in front. I knew I had to hold my position on the inside, but while I thought we would be done for toe I became aware that Heidi was having to work a bit harder than I was.

“Once we came off the home bend and my horse saw the fences I felt we had the race.

“You have to enjoy days like that. Horses are not machines and things can go wrong, so enjoy every moment when they are going well.”

Today’s three-runner, two-miler was chosen for Great Valley because it was felt he had the speed for such a test, while another Skelton/Palin rival, Unexpected Party, could prove a tough nut to crack in the two-and-a-half miler (8.00) sponsored by Carr & Day & Martin. Sankey says: “If we get round today and finish last of three it’s job done, because he have our eyes on Aintree next year, and a top-three finish would mean we are qualified. He’s pretty deadly over two and a half miles and a flat, galloping track like Aintree should really suit him.”

*Three O’Clock Fox involves a group of Shropshire farmers and point-to-point fans, namely Guy Sankey, Simon and Annabel Wadlow and their sons Adam and Ollie, plus Robin Williams and Mark Williamson.