Horse racing: Butler off to a fast start with Linnet

Published on Thursday 9 February 2012 00:00

JOHN Butler’s training career is starting to flourish and the bookmakers will be treating the Irishman with more respect after the Kempton success of Silver Linnet.

The 39-year-old Butler was a long-serving employee of Aidan O’Brien and rents boxes in Newmarket from Barney Curley, the highly astute trainer whose gambling exploits are the stuff of legend. Last month Butler sent out a jumping winner from his first runner and it took him only four tries to get off the mark on the Flat in the Free Entry For Betdaq Members Handicap.

Silver Linnet, who moved from the Quinlan brothers and was back from a 330-day lay-off, was tried in a visor instead of her usual headgear and tore her rivals apart from the front after being sent off a well-backed 15-8 favourite.

“I got my licence in January and I’ve only got eight in at the moment,” said Butler. “It’s onwards and upwards I hope.”

Explaining his background, he added: “I spent 12 years with Aidan O’Brien, both as an assistant and I also rode winners for him. After that I managed a stud but I thought I’d try training, get a few horses and make a go of it.”

The highest-quality race was the racingplus.co.uk Handicap for three-year-olds, where in-form pair Discoverer (3-1) and 7-4 favourite Pale Orchid were locked together for the final furlong. John Gosden’s Discoverer rallied to short-head his rival.

James Sullivan’s journey south for one ride was repaid by 7-4 favourite Spartilla in the skysports.com Handicap, while Divinsky finished fourth in his 200th race – named in his honour – behind 13-2 shot Sole Dancer.

Despite Newbury being likely to go ahead and a bonus jumps card being staged at Kempton, Saturday’s John Smith’s replacement Scottish Cheltenham Trials meeting at Musselburgh has attracted a competitive turnout.

A maximum field is probable for the John Smiths’ Scottish County Hurdle with most of last Sunday’s declared runners standing their ground and additional interest being stimulated by the inclusion of last year’s Cheltenham Festival winner Divers and recent course winner Simply Ned. Nicky Richards also has the latter pencilled in for Kelso next Wednesday, so should Simply Ned be declared overnight for Saturday’s race at Musselburgh, he would be a likely contender.

In the John Smith’s Scottish Champion Chase, Lucinda Russell’s Quito Du Tresor takes on the Ferdy Murphy trained De Boitron, Mick Easterby’s Lightning Rod and Woody Waller.

With Nicky Henderson opting to keep his horses close to home at Newbury and Kempton, Saturday’s reopened John Smiths’ Scottish Triumph Hurdle Trial could develop into a match between John Ferguson’s Newmarket juvenile Creekside and John Quinn’s duo, Blue Destination and Uncle Bryn.

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