Sine Nomine
Jump racing is about to get serious with the return of Yorkshire's only Cheltenham Festival winner - and Sine Nomine, the £2,400 buy who triumphed joyously under lofty amateur John Dawson in the St James's Place Festival Hunters' Chase last March, is set to take on professional opposition in 2024-25. Fiona Needham, who combines training the wonder mare under permit near Noltby, just outside Thirsk, with acting as clerk of the course at Catterick, says: "She's summered very well but she's been back in work for a while. We're looking at a Listed mares' chase at Market Rasen on November 27, to try to get some black type. "Then we hope to run her in the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby on Boxing Day. We might come back with our tails between our legs and back hunter chasing but we'll see where we go. She's done everything we've chucked at her and it's exciting." Taking on professional opponents does not necessarily mean taking on a professional rider for a mare who might have run in the Scottish Grand National last spring had a knock she suffered at Cheltenham not taken a while to clear up. "John will keep the ride," Needham stresses. "The mares' race is level weights and he'll be fine. "In a handicap, it depends on what runs. John wants to stay on her and I want to keep him on her as he rides her so well and he knows her - but there are limits to what weight you can squeeze a 6ft 2in frame into!"
Go girly.....what a day it was last March