The rat-a-tat sequence of three Grade One races at Kempton on Boxing Day has rarely, if ever, seen a combination of high quality and higher drama to match the action that unfolded over the course of little more than an hour here , and the King George VI Chase won by Hewick was, appropriately, the most gripping of all.
From the first stride, when the quirky Shishkin jumped away with the field, to the final, booming echoes of trainer Shark Hanlon’s celebrations in the winner’s enclosure, this was a race, and an experience, that few in the crowd of just under 12,000 are ever likely to forget.
