Charlie Deutsch – “Venetia rightly waits, and it pays dividends!”

Charlie Deutsch praised Venetia Williams patience and discipline after a memorable weekend in which they landed with Grade 1 Betfair Chase with Royalle Pagaille. 

Benefitting from the testing conditions at Haydock, the pair combined in ruthless fashion to claim this feature race, with Deutsch also partnering Fontaine Collonges to victory in the Betfair Exhange Handicap Chase.

It was an across the card treble for Williams, who sent Martator to Ascot who decimated his rivals in the Lay & Wheeler Hurst Park Handicap Chase under Ned Fox.

A delighted Deutsch reflected on his weekend saying: “Royalle Pagaille was really brave, he showed a lot of heart and bought all his best assets. The rain massively helped us as there were two horses who travelled well into the race but the softer ground just blunted their speed.

It was lovely to win on Fontaine Collonges. She has been a little bit in and out for us so it was pleasing to win with her. I’m not sure whether she could be a Grand National horse. She definitely stays three but I’m not certain she stays further, so we’ll have to find out.

“The team is going well, we had a treble on the day with Martator who had Ned on at Ascot. He won well and was impressive. Gemirande won on the Friday at Ascot, so it was a really good couple of days.”

In typical fashion, Williams has been patient at the beginning of the jump season, waiting for suitable ground before running her horses.

Stable jockey Deutsch was full of praise for her patience, even if it means the beginning of the campaign is a quiet period. Deutsch expects to see a couple of the stable stars out in the coming weeks.

He said: “Nothing is given in this sport. It’s always tense times at the starts of the season and sometimes you do feel behind when everyone else is riding winners.

“But rightly so, Venetia waits for the right ground and until the horse is ready and it pays dividends.

“I rode Funambule Sivola out this morning and he seemed happy. I’m looking forward to getting him back out, he doesn’t owe us anything and enjoys his racing. We’ll still have some fun with him.

“L’Homme Presse is good, he’s just doing the routines at home, I don’t know when we will see him next, it will probably be one of the big races coming up.

“We have some nice novice chasers and a few that haven’t run over hurdles so far, so I’m looking forward to getting them out.”

The pair will be looking to land the feature race again on Saturday as they send Victtorino to Newbury for the Coral Gold Cup.