Super-sub Charlie Maggs answers emergency call to ride first chase ...

ITV Racing viewers must have wondered whether they had inadvertently changed channels — this was the stuff of a Boxing day afternoon movie.

A teenage jockey who had never ridden a chase winner is called up in an emergency and lands a £50,000 contest to give the trainer his first victory since August? Pure schmaltz.

Yet that was how the William Hill Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase played out, with Charlie Maggs, a 7lb claimer attached to Donald McCain's yard, taking the place of Callum Pritchard and landing the biggest success of his career on bottom weight Some Scope for Richard Hobson.

After his 5-2 favourite's three-quarters-of-a-length victory, the relieved trainer admitted: "It was a bit of a nervous time this morning. There was a 7.30 phone call and Callum Pritchard couldn't ride him because he couldn't make the weight and there weren't many jockeys available.

"I spoke to Donald McCain and to the agent Richard Hales. Charlie Maggs hadn't ridden for me and he hadn't ridden one single chase winner, which obviously made me a little worried.

"But this horse jumps for fun, he's like an old handicapper. He's in at Cheltenham on New Year's day and I hope he'll turn out again there."

Maggs, 19, had not been fazed by his late call up and said: "Donald came to me at 8am when I was riding out and asked if I could claim off 10st 2lb and I said that would be no problem. 

"He went smoothly through the race and I was nearly there too soon, he jumped and travelled his way there. He's held on and done it well in the end."

Gloucestershire-based Hobson had gone 118 days without a winner and said: "We've been quiet, we've only had 30 runners this season. We only have 13 horses in training but he and Fugitif are two nice prospects and we have one or two youngsters."

Three cheers for Walford and Hamilton

North Yorkshire trainer Mark Walford and jockey Jamie Hamilton won the Rowland Meyrick with Into Overdrive in 2022 and had another memorable Boxing Day here, winning the first three races for a 178-1 treble.  

"We knew we'd come with a few chances today and we hoped we'd come out with a winner," Walford said. 

"This is great. It's a good effort by all the team at home to keep the show going," added the trainer, who hailed Into Overdrive's close relation The Final Brig hailed as "a very nice horse" ahead of his debut in the bumper at Wetherby on Friday.

The colours According To Pete carried to victory in the Rowland Meyrick in 2011 were back in the winner's enclosure after bumper winner Just Call Me Lucy (6-4 favourite) got off the mark at the third attempt over jumps in the mares' maiden hurdle.

Walford said: "We'd been a little bit disappointed with her hurdle runs as her bumper form was strong but this was a big step up and the longer distance helped her, she jumped a lot better."

Empty Nest (9-2) put in an improved effort to take the novice handicap chase by 14 lengths and his trainer said: "I'm not sure what's made the difference but something has definitely worked."

Chasingouttheblues won the 2m3f handicap hurdle at 12-1 and Walford said: "He won his novice at Hexham and this was a big step today.

"He's a chaser for the future and we were thinking of going straight over fences but we may give him another spin over hurdles."

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