IT'S HARRY IN A HURRY

Nick Townsend talks to a young trainer who learned from the best and is already making his mark

- Nick Townsend

Harry Derham’s tone appears decidedly sanguine as we talk before he saddles three runners at Kempton Park. A quiet Monday in the racing calendar for most. But not for the 29-year-old, less than a year into his training career. “A big day today,” he says quietly. “So, fingers crossed, we’ll have a bit of luck.”

He didn’t require it. All proceeds precisely to plan, and as the odds have decreed. In the first, a novices hurdle, his Queens Gamble, the 8-13 favourite duly prevails, stamping herself as a serious Cheltenham contender come March.

Just over two hours later the stable’s Dargiannini, the 2-1fav, justifies the odds by landing a handicap hurdle by 11 lengths. Even his other runner, the 80-1 shot Thunder N Lightnin, displays distinct promise in a novices hurdle, finishing sixth on his debut.

The triumph of Queens Gamble is a poignant one; the mare being previously trained by Oliver Sherwood, the retired Grand National-winning trainer, who joined Derham as his assistant last year. Sherwood, 68, had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 2021, but was given the all-clear the following year after chemotherapy treatment.

Queens Gamble had been the pinnacle of Sherwood’s yard, winning two bumpers at Cheltenham and a novices hurdle at Warwick, and who “helped him get through some pretty rubbish times”, Derham would tell Racing TV after this latest victory for the five-year-old. At the time of writing, she is around 14-1 for the mares’ novices hurdle at the Festival.

It has been some fortnight. Following that double for Derham, another at Newbury the previous week (with Brentford Hope and Young Butler) and a winner at Ascot (Sir Psycho) the stable is clearly flourishing, with a strike rate of 29 per cent.