Scriptwriter goes clear at Cheltenham

Milton Harris has high hopes for talented Scriptwriter

By Simon Milham

Horse Racing

Sat December 10, 2022 · 3y ago

Milton Harris insists that unbeaten hurdler Scriptwriter is “better than Knight Salute” who won six of his seven outings as a juvenile – including at Grade One level.

The former Aidan O’Brien trainee has won both outings over hurdles and was due to line up in the bet365 Summit Juvenile Hurdle at Doncaster on Saturday, only for the card to be abandoned due to frozen ground.

The Warminster handler was back on a racecourse for the first time at Cheltenham on Friday having recently flown back from Thailand, where he had been hospitalised upon arrival and placed in intensive care with a pulmonary embolism.

On Saturday morning, Harris spoke of his short golfing break which turned into a nightmare.

“I’m fine. I feel a bit knocked about, but I’m fine,” he said.

“I landed there and my lungs filled up with blood. It was touch and go for a couple of days, but listen, I take a bit of killing!

“I was in hospital after about three hours of arriving. It took 11 and a half hours to get there. I was in hospital for eight days. I’m not sure what caused it. Bad luck, I suppose.”

Harris still hopes to send the Mark and Maria Adams-owned Scriptwriter to Doncaster for the race Knight Salute won last term, should the BHA approve the course’s plea to switch the Summit Hurdle to its next scheduled meeting.

“I was a bit annoyed about Scriptwriter, as I was keen to see him,” added Harris. “There will be other days.

“They may possibly reschedule at Doncaster on December 29th. But I’m happy with him. He’s a good horse – he is better than Knight Salute, anyway.

“They are different horses, but he is a good horse.”

However, smart mare Mullenbeg, whose bid to complete a four-timer over hurdles ended when finishing sixth to Punctuation in the Catesby Estates Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham on Friday, may be on the easy list for a time.

Harris said: “It was good to be back and on course yesterday. We didn’t get a winner but the horses are fine, all except Mullenbeg, who was lame yesterday after the race. We think it is superficial. She is okay. We’ll see how she is in a day or two before thinking about making any plans for her.”

Doncaster aim to reschedule Summit Juvenile Hurdle

Doncaster will try to reschedule the bet365 Summit Juvenile Hurdle for December 29 after Saturday’s meeting was abandoned due to frozen ground.

Calling off the meeting, which also included the Grade Two bet365 December Novices’ Chase, was an easy one, according to clerk of the course Paul Barker.

Though racing was able to take place at Town Moor on Friday, temperatures dropped away to minus 5C overnight.

Having called a 9.30am inspection, it quickly became apparent racing was not viable and Barker called the meeting off just after 7.30am.

He said: “It has been a serious challenge for everybody in the last week.

“We fleeced down on Wednesday for Friday. Temperatures had not been too bad leading up to Friday night.

“We’d hovered around minus 3C in the evenings and had some reasonably positive daytime temperatures.

“That helped massively when we got the covers off and we got up to 4C yesterday. We raced and started to put the track back immediately after racing.

“Within an hour and a half it became apparent it had started to freeze and I just felt it was pointless sealing in the ground that was cold and freezing – we’d have had no hope then, as we would have just insulated frozen ground.

“So we made the decision to leave the covers off, with the fact that the conditions were not supposed to be that cold last night, with a forecast hovering around zero.

“Lo and behold, we went to minus 5C which is the coldest day we’ve had this year!

“I got here at 6.30am this morning and it was still -3C and it was an absolute white-out. So, with that, it was apparent it was pretty frozen.

“Obviously with us racing, we went a little bit later with a precautionary (inspection notice), but it became apparent very early this morning that I needed to call this (off) a lot earlier.

“You get calls from trainers, people who have horses with first and second preferences to run at Cheltenham and here, and they all want to be on the road early.”

However, the Summit Hurdle, won by subsequent Grade One winner Knight Salute 12 months ago, could be saved for the next meeting, and Doncaster have contacted the BHA to see if the race can be moved.

Barker said: “We can’t make that call. We have spoken to the BHA and would like to run that race here again and our next opportunity would be 29th December, which is our next fixture.

“We already have a couple of decent races on that day on ITV, so it would make it a nice hat-trick of nice races for us and hopefully then, if that was the case, we would get the sponsors on board as well.

“We have approached the BHA with the view that we would like to run it on 29th.

“Obviously there was a direct clash today (with Cheltenham’s JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle), with first and second preferences, but if it was a standalone, then hopefully we’d have quite a quality field on that day.

“There is a similar type of juvenile race at Chepstow on December 27, although Chepstow might have slightly different ground. Although, who knows with the weather this year?”

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