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For the first time in twenty years, National Hunt racing returned to Royal Windsor Racecourse on Sunday.
Since 1998, Windsor has raced nearly exclusively on the flat, best known for Monday night fixtures around the figure-of-eight track through the summer. Sunday marked the first time the Thameside course has staged jumps racing since deputising for sister track Ascot in the winter of the 2004/2005 season while the Royal course underwent refurbishment.
In that brief period, the turf track played host a number of high-class contests, including the 2004 Long Walk Hurdle where Baracouda clashed with My Way De Solzen.
Casting a glance further back in time, Windsor boasts a long and proud tradition of racing over obstacles, with the showpiece of latter years being the New Year's Day Hurdle. First run in 1975, Champion Hurdler Comedy of Errors won the 1977 renewal, turning over up-and-coming rival Sea Pigeon by a head. Celtic Shot also used the race as preparation for his winning tilt at the 1988 Champion Hurdle.
Over the larger obstacles, the three-mile Fairlawne Chase was held at Windsor from 1962 until 1998, which served as a Grand National Trial on account of its February date. The contest yielded three future National heroes in Anglo, Specify, and Rhyme 'N' Reason across its thirty-six editions.
While Windsor's old jumps course was laid out in a figure-of-eight, replicating the flat course, Clerk of the Course Charlie Rees has since dispensed with that configuration in favour of a more traditional continuous left-handed circuit. Runners take nine fences per lap – five down the far side, including two open ditches and a water jump, before tackling three plain fences in the home straight.
Harry Cobden and Emma Lavelle combined to land the curtain-raiser on Sunday's card, with Ma Shantou overturning odds-on favourite Excello after mounting a challenge at the last flight. His performance was a likeable one, grinding down Nicky Henderson's charge to mount a successful challenge late in the race.
The opener was the first leg of a Harry Cobden double, with Asian Master obliging in the 2m mares' handicap hurdle for the Champion Jockey. The Jimmy Frost-trained six-year-old battled bravely to see off the well-backed Bellbird by a head.
Sunday is the first of three National Hunt meetings scheduled at the track this season, with Windsor and Ascot combining to host the Berkshire Winter Million in January. Windsor have been allocated two days of the festival – January 17 and 19.