Walford lands Ripon treble as 329-1 trio edge three tight finishes

Three narrow wins in less than 90 minutes turned a routine opener at Ripon into a statement day for Mark Walford, whose 329-1 treble came from Empress Olivia, Kodiac Thriller and Spioradalta. On a card with 64 runners and four winning favourites, Walford’s trio stood out not just for the odds, but for the way each race was decided by the smallest of margins.

Empress Olivia set the tone in the 6f Silver Bowl, where the 9-2 favourite had to dig in to land the spoils by a head. The mare had already shown she was moving the right way when second at Catterick Bridge on 8 April, and she confirmed that progression with a hard-earned success on the opening day of Ripon’s new Flat season. Kodiac Thriller followed in the next 6f handicap, with Rhys Elliott again getting the job done for the yard as the horse prevailed by a neck after another gritty finish.

Spioradalta completed the sequence in the 1m2f Cock O’ The North handicap, where Jason Hart produced a determined ride to get the six-year-old home by a head from the 5-2 favourite Spoken Truth. That win carried extra weight because Spioradalta had already developed into something of a Ripon specialist, with two wins from three previous starts at the track. The result also underlined the value of familiarity with the course, as much as raw ability, in a finish that was again settled late.

Walford’s afternoon had begun with far more modest expectations. His 15 runners in the early part of the Flat season had produced only one winner before this meeting, so the scale of the breakthrough was as striking as the margins were tight. Timeform’s season figures had him on 243 runs and 20 wins at that point, but the Ripon treble gave the numbers a sharper edge and gave his stable a lift after a slow start on turf.

For a dual-purpose trainer based at Sheriff Hutton near York, the day also reinforced how dangerous Walford can be when he has multiple runners in the right races. Racing Post course figures had already shown a strong Ripon record, with five wins from 16 runners at the track in 2025, and Spioradalta’s repeat success there only strengthened that case. This was the kind of card that can change the mood of a yard in a single afternoon, and Walford left Ripon with his Flat campaign suddenly looking very different.