VIDEO: Sport in 2014 - the National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell Park
We’re reliving the top local sporting events and matches of the year in West Sussex and the £50,000 contest took place on a lovely sunny Sunday at the popular figure-of-eight track.
The race rarely disappoints – and it certainly lived up to its billing this year.
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Hide AdThe big money was on the £50,000 totepool National Spirit Hurdle going to the Paul Nicholls year for the second year in a row. But the bookies who rated Nicholls’ runner Saphir Du Rheu as the odds-on favourite had reckoned without the most courageous of displays by Kayf Moss, who led all the way around the two-mile, four-furlong course with Rhys Flint on board.
It was a superb and surprise effort from the six-year-old, who is trained by the jockey’s father John in Bridgend and began the contest priced at 16/1.
Thrilling the 2,400-strong crowd, Kayf Moss took the National Spirit crown in a photo finish from Robert Thornton on Meister Eckhart with Gary Moore’s Chris Pea Green a length-and-a-half back and the favourite another six lengths back.
Tomorrow: Promotion for Chichester’s rugby heroes