Kim Bailey’s little Docklands Express was the last to achieve back-to-back successes in 1991 and 1992.
Katate Dori will join a very exclusive club if he wins the Ladbrokes Trophy again at Kempton on Saturday.
Kim Bailey’s little Docklands Express was the last to achieve back-to-back success in 1991 and 1992 and for that you have to go back to Pendil in 1973-74, who had a race named after him on the map.
Sam Thomas believes the race is once again very “winnable” for his eight-year-old, who is back from an 11lb higher mark than before his 15-length romp.
“We took the sights off for his last run at Cheltenham and he put in a nice performance. It looked like he was going to win but he never quite got up,” Thomas said.
“We are happy with where we are now. It is a very winnable race I would say, there are plenty of horses that have a chance.
‘I just hope that the sights going back on will come out in him a little more.
“I don’t think he needs to dominate (like last year). I couldn’t tell you what happened last year, that was Charlie Deutsch doing his own thing, but we won’t tie Dylan (Johnston) down to instructions.
“Hopefully this is a stepping stone to the Scottish National and I’m glad the ground has dried up.”
Deep Cave looked like a chaser on the rise before disappointing Christian Williams last time out at Doncaster in the Great Yorkshire Chase.
The trainer is hoping for a similar scenario to Grand Geste, who also disappointed at Town Moor but won the Grand National Trial at Haydock last week.
“We’ve just put a line through Doncaster, we could come up with excuses but to me he looked beaten after two fences,” said Williams.
“It would be great if he could do what Grand Geste did and leave Doncaster behind him.
“We’ll go there as if Doncaster never happened and remember his win at Ascot because he looked like a really nice horse before that.
“It’s a great race, some brilliant horses have won the race over the years such as Desert Orchid and Docklands Express, and we were lucky enough to win it a few years ago with Cap Du Nord.”
Ben Pauling has two, Henry’s Friend and Leader In The Park.
“It was largely the plan to go with Leader In The Park, but I wouldn’t necessarily run it if it was on tough terrain, over three miles the first time,” Pauling said.
“Leader In The Park has a lot of room for improvement somewhere and Henry’s Friend is incredibly consistent and never really has a bad race.
“I think they are both in very good shape. It is a valuable pot and I would like to win it.”
Dan Skelton is another double-hander with top weight Boombawn and Hoe Joly Smoke, Harry Skelton’s mount.
“To be honest, I’ve had this race in mind all season for Hoe Joly Smoke,” Skelton told Ladbrokes.
“Three miles on this track is absolutely ideal for him. We’ve also given him a few cheek pieces. Obviously this one is worth a lot of money and we felt it was worth putting him on for that, so we did that and his work has been good. The surface should be ideal, I’m very positive about the whole thing, to be honest. Hopefully he’ll do really well.”
“Boombawn doesn’t look that good, but he knows how to run well in the big races, so that bit of class is there, and we get £7 off and we use young Harry (Atkins). Although he’s not well handicapped, he runs well at Kempton.”
At the other end is Sean Bowen on the Emmet Mullins-trained Rising Dust, winner of five of his last six races.
“Rising Dust are competing in the Ladbrokes Trophy and it’s always interesting when Emmett Mullins sends one over,” Bowen told Coral. “He has been a revelation since he joined the yard and he has done nothing but win.
“The question now is how far he can go. He started at one point in the 80s and now he’s over 127, so life just gets harder. He’s come up a lot in the weights and he’ll have to keep improving, but when horses get going as well as he does, you never know exactly where the ceiling is.”
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