Potters Charm takes National Spirit honours as Fontwell Park beats the downpours
Potters Charm held on for a two-length victory as the 1-2 favourite in the Star Sports National Spirit Hurdle – after Fontwell Park beat weeks of rain for the showpiece fixture to go ahead.
In a Twiston-Davies family affair, Sam steered the seven-year-old to victory in the two-mile, three-furlong grade two race for the yard run by brother Willy and father Nigel.
The dual-National Spirit winner Brewin’upastorm stayed on strongly up the run-in under Sean Bowen - for Olly Murphy - but the winning post came too soon for the 13-year-old veteran.
Following his success in Fontwell’s most valuable race of the season, Sam Twiston-Davies said: “It’s just nice to get him home in front – especially in a grade two.
“It’s not dad and Willy’s biggest win together but with the status of the race, it’s nice for them both.
“He went through the race beautifully. I missed three out, then off the sand I wanted to get rolling and probably got there a little bit easy in the end.
“He was just a little bit idling later on. He’ll go to Aintree fresh and well now and he’ll jump fences next season.”
Bowen, who has ridden in excess of 200 winners this season, spoke about second-placed Brewin’upastorm with admiration, saying: “He’s a great horse.
“He’s been an absolute dude for Olly’s yard for so long now. He loves that race, and to do that at 13 years-of-age I thought was brilliant.”
Elsewhere on the card, the Welshman rode his 202nd, 203rd and 204th winners of the season.
Before his second place in the feature race of the afternoon, the champion national-hunt jockey opened the card by scoring by six-and-a-half lengths in the two-mile, three-furlong Star Sports We Believe In Bookmaking Novices’ Hurdle, on-board 8/11F Gaelic Pride, for Warren Greatrex.
The 28-year-old followed up by steering Bollin Thou to a nine-length and fifth consecutive success at 11/8F, for popular Fontwell name and jockey-turned-trainer, Nick Scholfield - in the two-mile, five-and-a-half-furlong Barry Dennis Trophy Handicap Hurdle.
The hat-trick, in the two-mile, one-and-a-half furlong Star Sports Handicap Hurdle, brought up a Scholfield double as Queenie St Clair cruised to victory in race five - at 5/1 - by 17 lengths.
You won’t see many easier winners than this as Bowen sat motionless throughout, and in his post-race interview, Scholfield hinted that we might see the six-year-old head to the Cheltenham Festival next month.
Heavy ground proved no problem for Night Stalker, as Lewes-based trainer Sheena West and jockey Marc Goldstein teamed up to run away with the fourth race of the day - the two-mile, five-and-a-half-furlong Starsports.bet Handicap Hurdle - by 31 lengths, at 17/2 – a really impressive run from the six-year-old, carrying top weight.
Closing the card was the two-mile, one-and-a-half-furlong starsportsbet.co.uk Open Maiden National Hunt Flat Race, which produced the finish of the day.
Minella Premier grabbed the rail up the run-in to upset the well-backed favourite Red Acres Max by one-and-three-quarter lengths, for Richard Hobson and Paul O’Brien.
Next up at the West Sussex track is the St Patrick’s Raceday, an afternoon meeting on Saturday, March 14. Tickets are available at www.fontwellpark.co.uk.
Fontwell Park groundstaff have had to contend with a deluge of rain to begin 2026 and clerk of the course Philip Hide said: “We’ve had nearly 150mm of rain this month, and 145mm in January.
"Without the drainage works it would have been inevitable we would be abandoning probably this meeting, definitely the last meeting and possibly the next one.”
Forward thinking in altering the card to an all-hurdle affair helped save the racecourse’s showpiece meeting.
“We had to do some planning three weeks out with the way the forecast was shaping up - The BHA, to their credit, have been onside. If we didn’t we would have been abandoning,” Hide added.