Valdez best in Lightning Valdez gave Alan King his first winner since he was forced to shut down his stables with an emphatic victory in the Racing Post Lightning Novices' Chase at Doncaster. The Barbury Castle trainer only resumed operations on Friday with his horses having been under a cloud, and Valdez got the team back up and running in this Grade Two contest. Irish raider Arnaud set out to make all but a tired-looking mistake two out gave Robert Thornton hope on Valdez and the 15-8 favourite put in a fine leap at the last before leading on the run-in to score by three and a quarter lengths. "It's nice to ride a winner back for Alan. It's the first weekend we've had winners for a while, and this horse is better than that," said Thornton. "He got a sniff of getting by the second horse going to the last and he's gone and attacked it. That was pleasing. I think he probably showed better than that in his previous run. His jumping wasn't as good as it has been in the past, but we can sort that out." King was at Cheltenham, where he said: "It looked pretty testing by Doncaster standards - I think he's a much better horse on better ground, but I'm just delighted to get him back. He was ready to start back again, but only just. "He'll come straight to Cheltenham now for the Festival, and I hope the Arkle."
