TINY RIOT, ridden by Tristan Durrell, became the first winner over obstacles for his sire Sottsass as he ran out a relatively comfortable 4.5 length winner of this hurdle race and continued his trainer’s excellent record at the track, where he has recorded a 27% strike rate with his runners. Tracking the early pace, Tiny Riot produced the most fluent jumping display of the 6 runners for the vast majority of the contest, losing an average of 4.6% of his speed over his obstacles in the early part of the race and then an average of 5.9% in the middle part of the contest. Although that figure dropped to 9.9% over the final 2 obstacles, he didn’t appear to make any mistakes and was instead cautious as he approached the final flights, adjusting his feet to meet them on a true stride. Despite conceding ground in the process, he rallied when asked and recorded the fastest late speed (29.5 mph) and run-out speed (28.9 mph) in the field as he won going away. A winning time of 4:14.60 was 2s outside of the TPD Expected time for the grade, but was 5.69s quicker than the handicap hurdle over the same course and distance won by the 110 rated Glory and Honour later on the card.

Last season’s race was won by One Horse Town for Harry Derham, who lost an average of 6.6% of his speed over his hurdles as he ran out a 29 length winner from the David Pipe trained Mancero. The winner would go on to win the JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial at Cheltenham in November and ended the season with an official rating of 134. Tiny Riot may not have run to quite the same level to win on Saturday evening, but he recorded a similar overall jumping fluency score with a race average loss of 6.8% over his hurdles. He hadn’t shown a great deal in his 4 starts on the Flat for Dan Skelton, but his run-out speeds at both Southwell and Nottingham earlier in the year had at least ranked higher than his finishing positions, suggesting that this step up to 2 miles was highly likely to suit. As you can see from our infographic above, he recorded some of the best speed metrics in the field and all of those speed metrics were above the average figures recorded for a winner over this course and distance taken from the TPD results database. Sudbury Hill (2nd) was a winner on the Flat at Newcastle last year and has a rating of 75 on the level, whilst the 3rd placed Mount Eden is a well bred son of Camelot and a half-brother to 2 winners over obstacles. Taking the time figures and data from this year’s race into account, I think there are plenty of reasons for the Skelton team to be optimistic about the prospects of Tiny Riot and it will be no surprise to see him build on this success over the months ahead.