Djelo ridden by Charlie Deutsch on the way to winning the Trustatrader Peterborough Chase

Sky Bet Peterborough Chase report and reaction: Djelo wins again for Venetia Williams

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Sun December 07, 2025 · 14h ago

Venetia Williams enjoyed the perfect result to calm her nerves after Djelo secured a victory she described was "every bit as good as last year" after her rising star successfully defended his crown in the Sky Bet Peterborough Chase.

Having had a quieter than usual November the Herefordshire handler celebrated the perfect kick-start to December after watching the progressive seven-year-old become the first horse since Racing Demon in 2006 and 2007 to win back-to-back renewals of the Grade Two.

Sent off the 5/6 favourite to claim top honours in the two and a half mile test for the second year running his supporters never really had a moment's worry with Charlie Deutsch exuding confidence aboard the Pete Davies-owned Montmartre gelding.

Having tracked the early pace, which was cut out by Saint Sam, the odds-on favourite, who made a winning return in the bet365 Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby, moved into a lead he would hold on all the way to the line as the field headed out on to their final circuit.

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After measuring the fences down the back straight well Djelo was still travelling full of running as the field turned for home, while each of those in behind were starting to feel the pinch. And after safely negotiating the last Deutsch only needed to nudge his mount out to defeat the staying Edwardstone by four and three quarter lengths to set up a return to Grade One company.

Djelo poses with winning connections after the Peterborough

Next stop Kempton for winner

Williams said: “I’m really thrilled. I won’t deny it was one of the more nerve-racking days at the races, just because clearly not all of our horses have been firing as one would have liked, particularly Tanganyika yesterday, for no apparent reason, so I won’t deny I was coming into this not as confidence as I probably ought to be in light of what I’ve just seen.

“He (Saint Sam) has been a front-running in the past so the assumption was he would go and make the running, but Charlie quite rightly allowed that for a certain point and he clearly wasn’t going quick enough, at which point Charlie thought he needed to make sure it was the right test for him and not worry about that horse anymore.

“It was (a good display last year), but it is hard to compare one with another. It is every bit as good for sure.”

Following the race Djelo was cut from 12/1 into 8/1 by Paddy Power for the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day which will be next on the agenda, according to Williams.

She added: “As I said after Wetherby I think a lot of the good horses, which you have got to say he is one of the good horses, I don’t think they have finite distances really as long as they are quick enough for shorter and stay further.

“Charlie said after the last, and he said all the way up the run-in that he was thinking of the King George so he kept a bit in the tank. It is something to look forward to now. I think the only thing one can say is that he deserves to take his chance in the race.

“Furthermore, that is the obvious thing to do now and there aren’t other races you would be considering around that same period. He was the youngest horse in the race today, and there is still plenty of time to have a long career ahead of him."

Runner-up still enjoying himself

As for Edwardstone his trainer Alan King admitted he was delighted with the display and raised the possibility of stepping him up to three miles in the future.

King said: “I’m delighted. I came here today thinking are we going to be retiring him or not, but I don’t think we will be retiring him put it like that.

“You always want to win, but that was great. We are not going to come back in trip, but I might even go up in trip."

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