River gold

The four-year-old Stormy River filly River Gold is an exciting recruit for Deva Racing. She is trained by multiple champion Nicky Henderson from Seven Barrows in Lambourn and is sure to win races. 

Beginning her career in France with trainer Julien Jouin, she was a promising third at Compiegne on her debut in May 2023, before winning easily over 3400m at Dieppe on her second run. Settled in midfield behind a clear leader, she travelled strongly and demonstrated a good jumping technique throughout the contest, before moving to the lead two hurdles from the finish.

She didn’t need maximum persuasion from her rider to pull clear, eventually winning by nine lengths with her head in her chest. She was clearly in a different league to her rivals, several of whom have franked the form by winning since.

Sourced after the race by the Deva Racing team, River Gold was well-fancied when making her British debut at Fontwell in December, but unfortunately lost her action and had to be pulled-up by Nico de Boinville. That was clearly not her running, and she put in a positive showing on her only start since when second in a 2m juvenile hurdle at Ludlow in early January. The winner of that race, Royal Way (Galiway), has won both his starts since and is one of the most exciting horses of his generation in Britain. There is plenty to look forward to judged on that effort. 

River Gold is out of a well-related mare by the super sire Wootton Bassett and is therefore a near-relation of the Listed-winning French hurdler and multiple Gr.3-placed chaser Mayev (Goldneyev). A little further back in the family we find the French Champion Dancehall (Assert), who won the Gr.1 Grand Prix de Paris and was second to Old Vic (Sadler’s Wells) in the Gr.1 Prix du Jockey Club, before developing into a decent sire.

River Gold’s sire Stormy River, winner of the Gr.1 Prix Jean Prat during his racing days, is an ultra-reliable dual-purpose stallion. He is responsible for numerous smart runners under both codes, including the Gr.3-winning French hurdler Storminator, the dual code Listed winner Tara River, and Call Me Bubbles, who was a 140+ rated hurdler for Willie Mullins.

We look forward to seeing what this attractive grey filly can do during the 2024/25 season.