As we approach the final raceday of our 2018-19 season, taking place next Tuesday, we've had a look back at a few of the highlights from the past eight months.
We began back on Thursday 30 August with a raceday on which top Northern jockey Brian Hughes scooped victory in the two most valuable races. In the proceeding three months, Brian reached a career milestone of 1,000 winners across Britain & Ireland and we were delighted to celebrate that with a presentation on Friday 11 January, a raceday on which he scored a treble here!
Brian will end the season as top jockey at Sedgefield, regardless of results on Tuesday, currently standing with 22 wins from 74 rides, followed someway behind by Danny Cook and Sean Quinlan, each with 9 victories to their name this season. Despite having a fantastic season, both here and across Britain, Sean hit the headlines in our feature race of the season, The Durham National, for the wrong reasons. After omitting a fence that had been reintroduced, Sean's mount ran out and left Brian Boranha (Henry Brooke & Peter Niven) to take victory.
In the other feature race of the season, the Young Chasers Series Final, Cap Du Nord was victorious for jockey James Bowen and trainer Christian Williams. The horse managed three victories in under a month, with the first two coming here. There's clearly a bright future for the 6-year-old, and he's next entered in a Class 2 Handicap Chase at Haydock on Saturday.
Christian Williams boasts a 50% strike rate here this season, notching up three wins from six runners. We go into the final day of the season however with four trainers tied on seven wins a piece, those four are; Keith Dagleish (7-25), Philip Kirby (7-27), Brian Ellison (7-29), Donald McCain (7-45). The most likely seasonal top trainer appears to be Donald McCain, who has entered nine for races across the final day, with only Brian Ellison entering a runner across the other three. Grand National winning trainer, Gordon Elliott, has also been a notable name across the Sedgefield form this season, picking up six winners from eight runners, four of which on one day, our Thursday 6 September meeting.
We start at 2.10pm on Tuesday for the Paxtons Season Finale. There's seven races on the card, which concludes at 5.15pm. For more details, visit the What's On section of our website, or call us on 01740 621925.
