The six-year-old Getaway gelding Pescatorius has recently joined the powerful Warwickshire yard of Olly Murphy and looks an exciting future prospect for Deva Racing.

He is one of five winners out of the point-to-point winner Lisdaleen, whose unraced three-parts-sister Rinnce Moll is the dam of the Gr.2 bumper winner and Gr.1-placed chaser Blackbow and the Gr.3-placed hurdler Banntown Girl. The next generation of the family includes the Gr.3-winning hurdler/chaser Go Roger Go and the Gr.1-winning chaser Apache Stronghold, so there is a real depth of quality to this family.

Pescatorius made his debut in April 2023 in a Taunton bumper, but it was not until he was sent over hurdles towards the end of the same year that he began to reveal his full potential. He was an encouraging fourth on his first start over timber at Wincanton and then finished in mid-division behind the subsequent Gr.1 Champion Hurdle heroine Golden Ace at Taunton.

Soon allocated an opening official rating of 91, he was switched to fences midway through the 2024/25 season, and the move paid almost immediate dividends. Having been in contention for a long way on his chasing debut at Hereford, he was an emphatic five-length winner over 1m7½f at Catterick on his second start, racing handily throughout before forging clear after the third last to win in impressive fashion.

He has endured some minor jumping issues since but confirmed his current chase rating of 81 is very much within reach when beaten a neck into second from that mark at Huntingdon in February. The winner of the Huntingdon race followed up on his next start, and there were two more dual subsequent winners in behind, so it looks like a warm piece of form for the grade.

Clearly still well-handicapped and relatively lightly-raced, there is much to look forward to with Pescatorius, who is versatile with regards to ground and fully effective from 2m to 2m4f.

It is also worth highlighting just what an exceptional stable he has joined. A former assistant to Gordon Elliott, Olly Murphy has quickly climbed to the upper echelons of the NH training ranks since taking his licence out in 2017. He enjoyed a career-best season during 2024/25, saddling 141 winners at an extraordinary 25 per cent strike-rate and propelling stable jockey Sean Bowen to his first jockeys’ championship.

We feel that Pescatorius is a nicely treated individual with plenty more improvement to come. Please get in touch for more details.