Christian Williams' Kitty's Light landed a public gamble in the Vertem Eider Handicap Chase at Newcastle when he won the 4m1f contest at odds of 7/4.
The favourite was running off an 11lb lower mark than when he was second in the Scottish National to stablemate Win My Wings last year, that stablemate having won the Eider Chase before her Ayr victory.
And Williams was at it again at Newcastle this year, though it was far from plain sailing for jockey Jack Tudor who had to really get after his mount when the race developed on the turn for home.
He traded at a high of 16 in-running on Betfair, but Kitty's Light responded well to pressure to overhaul The Galloping Bear, who made a hash of the final fence, and he won going away by two and a half lengths.
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Williams said: “I’m delighted. It was a great ride for good owners. The ground was a bit messy and he made hard work of it, but we’ve got plenty of faith in him and you can never write him off.
“He does his best work in the latter stages of a race. He’s got a Flat pedigree and is not bred to be jumping fences and running over four miles!
“He’s a brilliant little horse. All the stats said he couldn’t win with his age and this and that, but he’s a freak so I didn’t take much notice.
“We know how hard it is to win that type of race. We won it with Win My Wings last year, who probably had 20-odd pounds in hand. We thought we had Kitty’s Light mapped out for it, but you don’t just go up there and win that type of race, so I’m proud of the horse and Jack everyone who travelled up there.”
Kitty’s Light was cut to 5/1 from 10/1 for the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter on March 18, but appears unlikely to take his chance.
“I think we’ve got two options now, the Scottish National and the bet365 Gold Cup. We’ll have a sit down and speak to the owners and see which race will suit him,” Williams added.
“He ran in both races last year, but this year they’re only a week apart so I think we will target one or the other.
“We left him in the Midlands National at the first stage as we were worried about the ground at Newcastle, but I would have thought he’ll be taken out of that now.”
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