Henrietta Knight, trainer of triple Gold Cup hero Best Mate, returns to the training ranks with two runners at Wincanton on Friday, but could she have a winner?
When Calgary Bay won at Ascot on March 29, 2015, it looked to have brought down the curtain on Henrietta Knight’s hugely successful training career, spanning over 26 years.
Forever known for skillfully training Best Mate to win three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups between 2002 and 2004, the West Lockinge trainer also won the Champion Chase with Edredon Bleu and the King George with both of those aforementioned horses.
Knight handed her licence in back in 2012 to care for her late husband Terry Biddlecombe, so Calgary Bay’s apparent swansong in 2015 came at a time when she sporadically had runners in the odd hunters’ chase, as was the case with that horse.
However, 3211 days since that last runner, 77-year-old Knight is back with a small string of horses and her first two runners, Zettabyte and Ballywalter, are set to run from her Wantage base at Wincanton on Friday, as long as the track passes an early-morning inspection.
Henrietta Knight
“Then there were my horses and ponies. I could not desert them. They were a big comfort to me and I often felt that I could communicate with them better than I could with human beings.” – Henrietta Knight, from Not Enough Time – My Life With Terry Biddlecombe (2015).
On her Friday runners
“I’m quite nervous thinking about it and I think I’m more nervous than when I sent out Best Mate in his third Gold Cup. Lots of people have been writing about us and I think there is an expectation for us to have a winner as we had a winner with our first runner in 1989 at Bangor.
“The plan is very much to go to Wincanton on Friday providing it is on. Zettabyte would prefer better ground, while Ballywalter is not a particularly fast horse but he will love the ground. He is a very honest and game horse that jumps and stays well.
“He is owned by my niece, who will be there at Wincanton with me, and he will run in my late sister’s (Celia) colours so it will be an extremely emotional day.”
Click here for Graham Clark’s full interview with Henrietta Knight
Our Racecard Verdicts:
Zettabyte 1.30
Modest maiden hurdler in Ireland for Gordon Elliott who was pulled up in a maiden chase (10/1) at Fairyhouse (24.5f, heavy) 66 days ago. Back over the smaller obstacles on first start for Henrietta Knight.
Ballywalter 3.00
Presenting gelding. Dam, unraced, closely related to useful hurdler/smart chaser (stayed 35f) Balthazar King and useful hurdler/chaser (stayed 3¼m) For Good Measure. Off the mark in Irish points at the sixth attempt (October 29). Watch for market clues.
Sporting Life Verdict
Knight had a good record at Wincanton in her first stint, winning 42 races from 262 runners at 16%, and out of the two it’s BALLYWALTER that could be the one to give her a first winner second time around.
The seven-year-old was an easy winner of a point-to-point at the end of October and his unraced dam was closely related to Philip Hobbs’ 16-time winner and Grand National second Balthazar King, suggesting this stamina test – three miles in soft ground – should be well within his compass.
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