Alex Ferguson’s great run continues as he gets two more winners at Newbury

Sir Alex Ferguson’s remarkable run of form as the co-owner of an ever-expanding team of racehorses continued here on Friday as Regent’s Stroll and Kalif Du Berlais completed a double in the first two races of Newbury’s winter carnival meeting. The victories added about £19, 000 to the prize money earnings of syndicates in which Ferguson is involved in the current National Hunt season, which is just a fraction of the £472, 000 won by Spirit Dancer, the former Manchester United manager’s best Flat horse, in the Bahrain International Trophy earlier this month. Both winners, though, are young and improving horses with almost limitless potential, and received quotes for races at Cheltenham’s festival meeting in March after their wins. Regent’s Stroll, who remains unbeaten after three starts after his success in the opening maiden hurdle, is priced up at about 14-1 for the Turners Novice Hurdle on 12 March, while Kalif Du Berlais, who bounced back from a fall on his chasing debut to win a novice handicap chase, is 50-1 for the Arkle Trophy Novice Chase the previous afternoon. The victory of Regent’s Stroll was particularly sweet for Paul Nicholls, the gelding’s trainer, as he feared that the five-year-old could leave the yard when Chris Giles, its former owner, dispersed his racing interests earlier in the year. A four-strong syndicate including Ferguson and his close friend, Ged Mason, paid £660, 000 to keep Regent’s Stroll in Nicholls’s yard when he went under the hammer in July. “They’ve invested between them all and they’ve got some beautiful horses for the future, ” Nicholls said after Kalif Du Berlais’ success. “They have got a right team of horses now, and it’s good having five or six of them together. “When these horses make this sort of money, we can afford to buy them, and between six of them, it’s not as bad as trying to get one to buy it. It’s good to have them on board and they love it. ”