Another big race Saturday, and another big weekend winner for trainer Venitia Williams and stable jockey Charlie Deutsch, who in previous weeks have teamed up for success with Djelo and Royal Pagaille.

On the second day of the Howden Christmas Family Raceday in front of a bumper crowd of almost 20,000, Victtorino continued his love affair for the Berkshire track by making it back-to-back victories in the Howden Silver Cup.

Deutsch rode the perfect race by settling the six-year-old at the back of the field before steadily producing a challenge approaching the last. On the run in, it was a straight fight to the winning post between The Changing Man and Deutsch’s mount, who got up to win by ½ length.

A first winner at Ascot and a first winner for her mum was the perfect Christmas present for Olive Nicholls, who made all the running on board Thank You Ma’am to land the opening 2m 71/2f novices handicap hurdle to win comfortably from Golden Ambition by seven-and-a-half lengths.

"It's amazing, especially as that's my first winner for mum," said the winning rider, scoring on her 27th ride under rules for Georgie and on only her third attempt at Ascot.

"I had a bit of a nightmare season last year. I was injured for the majority of it and after three falls in quick succession I struggled coming back. I lost confidence but it's great to get back on a roll and hopefully that will continue."

The Class 2 Howden Graduation Steeplechase attracted just four runners, but plenty of drama in the race.

The only English runner in the quartet Iroko went off as favourite, but his hopes of winning were soon dashed after being hampered and eventually falling at the first fence.

This left three Irish raiders to challenge for the 2m 5f contest.

Despite pulling left throughout the race, Jungle Boogie took the honours, helped by an impressive jump at the last to win by eight lengths for trainer Henry de Bromhead.

The feature race of the day, the Howden Long Walk Hurdle Race, was won by last year’s winner Crambo.

After getting over the line, the popular seven-year-old managed to see off the challenge of Hiddenvalley Lake by a head for an emotional Fergal O’Brien.

His training operation in the heart of the Cotswolds has had problems with horses suffering through illness during the autumn. But the tears in his eyes and his quivering voice was a big enough sign for everybody to see how much this win meant for him.

"It's been a tough time and the owners know that the horses haven't been firing," said O'Brien. "You don't want to see horses pulling up and we've had fewer runners because they haven't been quite right. I'm so grateful to Chris Giles and Jared Sullivan for letting me wait, and he's shown us what we wanted to see.”

The final race of the afternoon saw a thrilling conclusion to the Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle, with a photo finish required to split Fiercely Proud and Kabral Du Mathan, with the Ben Pauling trained Fiercely Proud living up to his name, by a short head.

By Peter Moore