Options open for White Noise after Jane Seymour second

Connections of White Noise are weighing up their options with the smart mare after her narrow defeat in the Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Warwick on Saturday.

The six-year-old was trying her hand in graded company for the first time and gave a good account of herself at the level, holding the lead in the dash for the line before being headed off by three-quarters of a length by Kingston Queen.

That was a first defeat of the season for the daughter of Kingston Hill following victories at Worcester, Market Rasen and Newbury at the back end of last year.

Mat Nichols, who trains in partnership with Kim Bailey, said: “We’re very pleased.

“Obviously it is disappointing to get beat when you’ve gone to the front halfway up the run-in, to then have one come back and beat us was a bit gutting for all of us but she’s run a cracker, she’s an improving mare and I’m sure there’s a bit more to come yet.

“She’s done very well. She started off at Worcester and we thought she’d win first time out and she maybe surprised us a little bit at Newbury with how well she won over two miles. We were a bit concerned whether she would be quick enough that day but she showed plenty of boot. She’s improved all year and hopefully she can continue to do so.

“There’s options now, there’s plenty of nice mares races around and the obvious one is the Mares’ Novice at the Cheltenham Festival but there’s also Fairyhouse on Easter Monday and there’s the Kelso race (Herring Queen Series Final Mares’ Novices’ Handicap Hurdle) that’s worth quite a lot of money that she’s qualified for.

“There are no plan as yet to be quite honest, she’s been out for a trot this morning but we haven’t chatted to the owner about it but there are quite a few options for her.”

Nichols is expecting White Noise to take a step forward when she switches to chasing next season.

He added:  “She’ll go over fences in the autumn and we’ll find out where we are then, you’d think she is going to be a better chaser. She’s shown an awful lot of speed and we bought her out of a point-to-point so we know she stays. Options are open for her but she’ll definitely be jumping fences next year.”