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Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
What Is Calabash International Literary Festival? A Q&A About Jamaica's Renowned Event
Kwame Dawes and Sheryl Lee Ralph at Calabash 2025 in Treasure Beach, Jamaica There is a fine line between Calabash and a cult. After all, there exist legions who will not miss the biennial festival for anything in the world—those of us who, religiously and ritualistically, take planes, trains and automobiles to reach a remote fishing village in Jamaica where some 3000 people gather in the name of the holy word. See, this is no ordinary literary festival. Since its inception in 2001 Calabash has featured such literary heavy hitters as Salman Rushdie, Jamaica Kincaid, Junot Diaz, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Colson Whitehead, Derek Walcott and actor/novelist Michael Imperioli—all of whom forgo their usual speaker fees because it is so great an honor and a joy to just be invited to read at Calabash. And its setting is the epitome of perfection: Jakes at Treasure beach, a cluster of eccentrically lovely cottages scattered whimsically across six rocky, beachfront acres—a place where the sea is the omnipresent soundtrack (so intensely present that it transforms us visitors into the backdrop against which it, the main character, acts). Every time I stay at Jakes I notice some quirky design detail I hadn't honed in on before; this time it was the 'book nook,' posted outside the property to foster reading in the community. The whimsical beauty of Jakes But the magic of Calabash is so much greater than the sum of its parts. In an increasingly AI-generated world, Calabash—like Jakes, from whom the festival feels organically sprouted—is palpably, beautifully IRL: a noun, a place, a verb and a vibe. It is gloriously anachronistic—no, it is both the past and the future: a relic from an era when digital distraction did not rule, but also saturated in the forward-thinking genius of the writers who grace its stage. It is a festival infused with reggae—there are nightly concerts on the beach and an incredible closing acoustic concert in tribute to a selected classic album—but more than that, Calabash moves like reggae, with an insouciant feel that masks the meticulously calculated coordination at its core. Making such magic takes a village—literally: the tight-knit community of Treasure Beach is itself a main ingredient in the festival—but there is a powerhouse trio at the heart of that calculated coordination. Following last month's staging of the festival, its largest one yet. I asked them some questions. Justine Henzell JUSTINE HENZELL, CO-FOUNDER AND PRODUCER OF CALABASH Can you break down the beautiful alchemy that is Calabash: what are the ingredients that go into this inimitable festival? It is indeed magical but yet obvious that if you fill an exquisite destination with fascinating people, let them listen to diverse points of view read and spoken eloquently, feed them delicious food, and provide music to vibe and dance to a good time will be had by all. In decades of Calabash, what have been, for you as Producer, its most challenging moments and its most magnificent moments? 2027 is the 16th staging so there are so many but simply looking at this year I can find challenges and magnificent moments. Like finding a way, in 24 hours, to fill the space left by Michael Ondaatje's unavoidable absence was indeed a challenge! But because the Calabash team can pivot and draw on a deep well of talent and support, the conversation with Marlon James and Paul Holdengraber was a triumph rather than a consolation. The echoes of Sheryl Lee Ralph song at the end of her conversation with Kwame Dawes are still resonating weeks later. Having a sitting Prime Minister of Jamaica attend for the first time and engage deeply with the authors and audience was also a highlight. What will Calabash look like in 20 years? Hopefully it will look the same in 20 years. The beach will be present in the background, the sea will be safe for swimmers, flowers pollinated by bees will decorate the stage and the audience will be as diverse as it is now. How will it feel? The hunger for sharing experiences has only increased since we started Calabash in 2001 and I believe it will continue to be a need. The palpable joy of the festival weekend feeds the soul as well as the mind and Calabash will continue to be treasured for providing that space. Kwame and I will be 'Calabashemerita' looking on from our comfy chairs strategically placed to catch the breeze, overwhelmingly pleased as we whisper and laugh with each other while watching our successors hurry about. Kwame Dawes KWAME DAWES, CO-FOUNDER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF CALABASH Can you share more about the process of selecting readers for Calabash? How do you ensure the right combination of wordsmiths? There is really no mystery to our system and our process. We rely on recommendations and on paying careful attention to what is happening in the literary world. We always managed to limit our options by the rules we built into our process--we prioritize new work by our authors, and we seek always to create a balance across all kinds of markers of range a diversity. The principle is to never lose sight of where good and interesting work may be happening in the world, and then making sense of how that work will go over at Calabash. What people may not know is that we are persistent about inviting writers year after year, and we have sought to keep a good relationship with writers, some of whom have not yet said yes to coming. Each year, after the festival, we write to all the writers and we ask them to suggest writers who they know and who they think would be a good fit for the festival. This approach is important for a few reasons. The first is that we know that those who have read at the festival understand what its beauties, strengths and unique qualities are, and so they can communicate this to those writers they know. The second is obvious: they know these writers and can open a door of communication directly with the authors. This has proved especially helpful. While many festivals can offer good fees, and the quality of feed can be a deciding factor for the writers (and their agents) for us what we have to be able to offer assurances of are the following: a large and engaged audience, the opportunity to sell books, a destination that they would pay to go to on their own, an assurance that they will be well-cared for and valued by the festival organizers, an exceptionally good sound system, that they are being invited not entirely for their fame but for the quality of their work with which we are familiar, if not intimate, and the company of really gifted and successful writers. Our secret weapon is Justine. There are few people who can ask for impossible things from people in a manner that makes them regret saying no. Finally, there is our other secret weapon. We do not always know how a reading will go down, but we have come to trust the generosity, hospitality and good humor of our audience, it is a quality that actually transforms the writers in quite remarkable ways. Calabash is a vibe—this may be a cliche, but it is so because it is true. And it allows space for writers to be themselves, but it also moves them into shaking off the usual anxieties of reading at festivals, and capture the Treasure Beach vibe, the Jamaican vibe. We work on this. Needless to say, we have started to think of 2027. Truth is, we started to think of 2027 in 2017. This is the nature of programming. Avid listeners: The larges-ever crowd at Calabash 2025 In decades of Calabash, what have been its most magnificent moments? I am never good at this kind of question. As an organizer, I have always cherished the generosity of the audience—their patience and the cooperation. When I stand on the stage and start to list out the "tent etiquette,' or when I have to respond to the million questions about the open mic and when it is going to happen, or when I am aware that something may have been said on stage that may not have sat well with many, I have always been impressed with the good humor, the kindness and the incredible level of community that this audience has shown. I have been as impressed at the manner in which this attitude is contagious—how generations of Calabashers have passed this spirit on to others from festival to festival. Here is the thing: I have read all over the world, and I mean it when I say that this audience is the most attentive and informed audience to whom I have read. They prepare for the festival, but they also come with a remarkable skill which in many places, has been lost—the skill is the ability to listen and apprehend buckets full of spoken words. I have always observed that Jamaica is a radio society—the radio is still a part of the way we live, and listening is engendered by this. The vibe that is Calabash The second thing that has impressed me year after year, has been the style of the audience. This year, I saw a series of instagram reels featuring Calabash style and I thought this was ingenious. I mention style because what we see revealed is idiosyncratic approaches to style and fashion. People seem to just express themselves how they want, and the result is a chaotic collage of beauty. It's a thing. I could name some of the big names who have come to the festival, and a list of the less than big names who have read. But none of them have surprised me with their brilliance. Their brilliance was known to us when we invited them. What was a surprise for me, and continues to be this has been their willingness to come to our festival. I will never take this for granted. What will Calabash look like in 20 years? Here is what I hope. That the festival will maintain its core principle of being a free festival, of being primarily designed for a Jamaican audience, of being an international festival that is fundamentally Jamaican in spirit, that we hold to our motto of 'earthy, inspirational, daring and diverse'; that Calabash will hold to the reggae principles of its beginning in those, philosophy, and consciousness. We are a festival based on the southern hemisphere, in the third world, in a country shaped and defined by the African those and understanding, and My hope is that this will not be lost. But I can also say that we have been working on the legacy of the festival—its incredible archive of assets surrounding each staging—the photos, the videos, the planning ideas, the art and design work, the merchandize, and on and on. We believe we have created something that such be memorialized as a truly transformative force in Jamaica, and we are working on this and have been doing so for many years. We also, know that Calabash may have to change to meet the needs of the country. When we started the Workshops and Seminars were critical parts of our mission which was to elevate reading and writing of the literary arts in Jamaica. That goal will not change, but Calabash is now looking at other ways to achieve this. The launching of a Caribbean Poetry Book Series, Calabash, is a case in point. Jamaica has to decide whether it wants Calabash to be here in twenty years time. This is a money question, yes, and it is a will question. Justine and I, and the team carry in us tremendous knowledge and skill about running a great festival. People may think this is simple, but if it were, there would be many more of these. The fact is, there are not. If Calabash is around in twenty years, it will be because we have found a way to transfer this knowledge to people who have the vision for the festival. Jason Henzell and his sister Justine JASON HENZELL, CHAIRMAN OF JAKES HOTEL I don't think Calabash could be held anywhere else but at Jakes. Why do you think that is? What is it about the relationship between Jakes, Calabash and Treasure Beach that is so magical? In 2000 Noel Mignott of the Jamaica Tourist Board took [Jamaican novelist and Calabash co-founder] Colin Channer around Jamaica on book tour for his first novel, Waiting in Vain. When reaching Jakes I told them Justine & I came from a family that understood creative people and production and that such a festival would mean a lot to a small village like Treasure Beach. I told them about Alex Haley writing the seminal book Roots at Treasure Cot, our grandparents' beach house on Calabash Bay, which they built in 1941, the year our mother Sally was born. Colin and Kwame Dawes had been hatching the idea of a literary festival already so once Colin and Justine met in Montego Bay the founding trio began to plan in earnest. In 2001, Jakes hosted the first Calabash with about 300 people attending, mostly family and friends. The writers were drawn from the Jamaican and overseas literary community that Kwame and Colin knew. There were more yellow butterflies in the lignum vitae trees than there were people but we knew something special had been created. Jakes, Calabash and Treasure Beach have all grown together over the past 24 years, a beautifully symbiotic relationship. The success of Calabash 2025 has also inspired us to plan the second staging of the Food, Rum & Reggae Festival set for Nov 7-9. Can you share some details about new developments at Jakes and in Treasure Beach, especially since Hurricane Beryl? What did recovery look like—and how was it both a local and a global effort? The outpouring of love and support from overseas visitors after Hurricane Beryl was tremendous and enabled the BREDS Treasure Beach Foundation to assist hundreds of families to 'build back with love.' It proved that the community tourism model, where tourists interact in a myriad of meaningful ways with the local residents, works in good times and challenging ones. Less than a year later Treasure Beach was able to host thousands for Calabash 2025 and show that we are ready to welcome guests again. It was a huge boost to area in every way.
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Infused with the fire born of resistance': the magic of the Calabash literary festival
'Do I look like a rebel?' Booker prize winner Marlon James jokingly asks the crowd moments after walking on stage, head-banging his dreads to the sound of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. If your only experience of literary festivals are polite, well-mannered affairs inside tents in the British countryside, the Calabash literary festival, held on Jamaica's Treasure Beach, hits differently. It's not just the setting but the rare joy of seeing a majority-Black audience and roster at a literary event. It's a festival infused with the magic and fire born of resistance. James was one of many authors who shared that, were it not for the festival, he wouldn't be the literary giant he is today. It was after one of Calabash's now-legendary open mic sessions that he secured his first publishing deal. No surprise, then, that people waited in snaking lines, some for well over an hour, to get their three minutes on the mic. For festival-goers, one of the most anticipated readings of the weekend was from Safiya Sinclair's National Book Critics Circle award-winning How to Say Babylon – on home soil for the first time. Her book chronicles growing up in 80s and 90s Jamaica as a Rastafarian girl, and she read a haunting passage about deliberately stepping on a rusty nail after being ostracised at school. This was at a time when the legacy of Jamaica's first prime minister Alexander Bustamante, and his infamous 1963 command to 'Bring in all Rastas, dead or alive' still loomed. The Calabash literary festival was founded in 2001 by poet Kwame Dawes, novelist Colin Channer, and producer Justine Henzell (whose family own and run Jakes, the beachfront hotel where the festival is hosted). What began as a small event in Jakes' lobby with only 150 guests now attracts thousands, a quarter of a century later. And, unlike most literary festivals, Calabash is completely free to attend. 'Passion is the only price of entry,' its website states – though adds that 'voluntary contributions are welcomed'. The festival's allure is undeniably amplified by its ludicrously picturesque setting: piercing blue skies, crashing waves and endless rays of sunshine frame the stage from which authors speak. If you thought Treasure Beach a sleepy town full of beach bums, fishers, locals and ex-corporate types who have traded in their careers for psychedelic retreats, you wouldn't be entirely wrong. But as the festival begins, a rebellious spirit is ushered in. The weekend's format is simple: readings arranged around specific themes, punctuated by a handful of headline talks. The crowd at Calabash is a world unto itself, made up of authors and book lovers from across the Caribbean, as well as from the UK, US, Canada and South Africa. A new wave of influencers were also in attendance, including prominent bookstagrammers like Trinidad-based @bookofcinz and South Africa's @prettybookish, who now play an increasingly important role in elevating Caribbean and diasporic literature. Standout sessions from the weekend included Caleb Femi, a former young people's poet laureate and the author of Poor. He brought south-east London to Calabash with four poems from his sophomore collection The Wickedest – a portrait of one party night told through the eyes of flirtatious guests, unwanted intruders and their fearless leader. Laughter echoed throughout. Danez Smith, author of Homie and Don't Call Us Dead, read work that could melt even the coldest of hearts – opening with a tribute to the gully queens (Jamaica's trans community), thanking their lesbian friends for teaching them how to love, and sharing poetry in the form of a love letter to their formidable grandmother. Mary-Alice Daniel gave perhaps the most brilliantly absurd reading of the weekend, sharing surreal poems and a hilarious piece of prose about the loss of her toe. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Other literary heavyweights on the roster included Ian McEwan and Abbott Elementary's Emmy-winning Sheryl Lee Ralph, who closed the festival with a celebration of her memoir Diva 2.0, which traverses her journey from growing up in Jamaica to entering Hollywood. And of course, this is Jamaica – so while the days were filled with conversations about craft and storytelling, the nights belonged to music. On Friday and Saturday, the festival turned into a party, with live performances and DJs that didn't start until midnight. And Sunday afternoon closed with a moving celebration of the 50th anniversary of Burning Spear's album Marcus Garvey, a tribute to the power of roots reggae as a form of cultural memory and resistance. Over dinner that final night, there were discussions about how such a small island has managed to have a gargantuan, global cultural footprint, especially within the world of literature. Dawes, one of the organisers, pointed to Jamaica's history of rebellion, including the largest of slave uprisings, as the root of its spiritual and creative fire. 'Jamaica was the site of the most virulent practices of the transatlantic chattel slavery,' Dawes says. 'While we can speak of the negative legacy of this truth we can also speak of the restorative and inventive power of resistance and rebellion [that has] allowed this small population of 2.5 million people to have an absurdly outside global impact as a culture.' 'Despite the hardships of history,' he adds, 'there is a necessary confidence that is part of the Jamaican spirit.' The next Calabash literary festival will take place in 2027
New York Times
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jamaican Homes That Showcase the Island's Creative History
BY THE TIME Jamaica gained independence from Britain in 1962, a number of the sugar plantation owners there had moved on, but the island remained a refuge for a certain type of English expat: literary, artistic, wealthy. The 'James Bond' author Ian Fleming and the composer and playwright Noël Coward, among others, built elegant beachside or mountaintop estates at a far remove from the nation's rising tide of Pan-African Rastafarianism. Though Perry and Sally Henzell were born on the island to parents with British roots, they chose a different path. Perry, who died in 2006 at 70, was the son of a plantation manager. He left as a teenager to study in England and later worked for the BBC in London before returning home to help set up the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. About a decade later, he directed and produced the seminal 1972 feature 'The Harder They Come,' starring the musician and actor Jimmy Cliff, which helped bring reggae and Jamaican culture to a global audience. When he married Sally Densham, a 22-year-old farmer's daughter from Mandeville in the country's interior in 1965, she had recently returned to Jamaica from a job dressing windows at Selfridges in London. She wound up art directing and costuming 'The Harder They Come,' as well as developing an interior design practice and eventually creating Jakes Hotel, the family's ever-evolving, unassumingly stylish 32-year-old resort in Treasure Beach, on the island's southern coast. That enclave, mostly designed by Sally, is both geographically and spiritually far from the all-inclusive clamor of Negril and Montego Bay — a mélange of Jamaican, Moroccan and Indian influences, touched by the spirit of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. DESPITE THE COUPLE'S deep imprint on the local culture and its music industry, their greatest legacy may be the family homes Sally created over the decades. She first stumbled on the 1,800-square-foot Itopia (the name is her play on the word 'utopia'), a cut-limestone manor built in the 1660s in the hills above Runaway Bay on the northern coast, 60 miles from Kingston, the capital, soon after 'The Harder They Come' was released. At the time, Perry, Sally and their two children, Jason and Justine, were living in Kingston, in a complex that included their home, Perry's production studio and Sally's workshop. But when she saw the elegantly ramshackle three-bedroom house with a free-standing, one-bedroom annex on three and a quarter acres, she says, she 'knew at that moment it was mine.' Built as part of the Cardiff Hall plantation, the property had fallen into near ruin; chickens and the odd goat wandered through the living room. After buying it in the early 1970s, the Henzells began making it habitable. Sally scraped back centuries of paint with a machete, to the point where the walls of the peaked-ceiling living room resembled an Abstract Expressionist canvas. 'I suddenly looked around,' says Sally, 'and said, 'Don't do more! We're living in a painting.'' They moved in in 1975, but the house wasn't wired for electricity until 1991. ('I wouldn't have wires dangling down in that venerable house. And we couldn't afford to do it properly then,' she says.) At first, running water arrived only from a single tap in the garden. Furniture came over time — an Indian metal table from Perry's family in Trinidad, a neo-Classical mahogany sideboard from Antigua, a desk once owned by Marcus Garvey, an oil painting by the Cuban artist Roberto Fabelo. The couple nurtured the garlic vines that draped the weather-stained exterior and placed vintage metal garden furniture on the porticos. Despite its roughness, the house became a social epicenter, filled with visiting artists and musicians, among them Joe Cocker and Marianne Faithfull. Joni Mitchell spent a couple of weeks with them in the mid-1980s. 'She said, 'Would you mind if I painted your wall?'' says Sally, who provided most of the materials. She didn't have any yellow paint, so Mitchell went down to the main street, where workers were repainting the lines in the road, says Sally, and asked if she could borrow some for a mural — still visible behind the bed in the primary bedroom — of faces and Chinese characters. For decades, Sally wrote poetry, took photographs and designed residences for clients, and Perry worked on a second film, 'No Place Like Home,' which was released only after his death. The family shuttled between Itopia and a rustic weekend cottage Sally's father had built in 1941 in secluded Treasure Beach, the closest spit of sand to the family home in Mandeville. (Alex Haley borrowed it from them to finish writing his 1976 novel, 'Roots.') After their father died in 1991, Sally and her sister, June Gay Pringle, sold the homestead in Mandeville; Sally used the money to buy another small house on a neighboring Treasure Beach plot. Although neither she nor Perry was, she says, 'ever very good at business,' he encouraged Sally to open Jakes — named after the family's pet parrot. They added structures over the years, and Chris Blackwell, the British-born music impresario who, like the Henzells, had grown up on the island, helped them market it under his collection of Jamaican boutique lodgings, which also includes Fleming's house, GoldenEye. After Perry's death, Jason, now 55, who runs the family business, convinced Sally it was time to build a house of her own on the Treasure Beach compound. 'It was such a wonderful, cathartic idea,' she says, 'for me, with my grief, to start again.' She named it Bohemia because Perry's ancestors had come from that region of Eastern Europe, and had the outside painted magenta. The two-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot house is decorated with her signature offhand élan, with bits of sculptural driftwood, shells, coins and beachcombed glass bottles. Stuffed with books and mementos — a small watercolor of a palm tree given to the couple by a hotel guest, posters from their films, framed black-and-white family photos — with generations of feral cats wandering about, the place reflects her own barefoot trajectory. To take advantage of the sea breezes, there are few interior walls. The main bedroom upstairs is inspired, Sally says, by her romantic vision of an opium den, with textile-covered beds and divans scattered about. (One small bed, against a whitewashed paneled wall, features a diaphanous apricot-colored printed muslin from India draped like a canopy from the ceiling.) Another room is swathed in African fabrics given to her by Blackwell, whose wife, Mary Vinson, collected them. As the afternoon begins to fade, a guest staying in one of the Henzells' villas up the road quietly enters and crosses the living room in a bathing suit and towel. 'Just ignore me,' she says gaily as she exits toward the beach. It feels perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the house that Sally has encouraged the woman to take a shortcut through her home — the sun throwing patterns on the smooth concrete floors, a tangle of wild cats splayed out in the shadows — to reach the golden sand.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Chester May Festival 2025 day one: Lambourn can win the Chester Vase
-Credit:Niall Carson/PA LAMBOURN can give Aidan O'Brien another victory in the Boodles Chester Vase Stakes (3.05pm) on day one of the 2025 Boodles Chester May Festival. And with success in the Group Three feature on the Roodee the three-year-old can book his ticket to next month's Betfred Derby at Epsom. The Ballydoyle handler has won this race a record 10 times and several of his previous winners have gone on to contest the Derby, with Ruleroftheworld winning both races in 2013 and Treasure Beach finishing second at Epsom before taking the Irish Derby following his Vase victory two years earlier. 2017 Derby hero Wings of Eagles was also runner-up on the Roodee before his success in Flat racing's blue riband. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Lambourn can at least give himself the chance of following some of those to Epsom on June 7 with victory in the extended 1m4f Group Three contest at Chester. The three-year-old son of O'Brien's 2014 Derby hero Australia won two of his three starts as a juvenile, scoring over a mile at Killarney on his debut last July before following up a month later in a Listed event at Craon in France. Lambourn lost his unbeaten start when fifth to Hotazhell when stepped up to Group Two company in the Beresford Stakes in September on the final start of his juvenile career. READ MORE: Liverpool forward posts goodbye message as exit confirmed after transfer redemption READ MORE: 'That hurts' – Jurgen Klopp suspicion raised despite public Liverpool stance Lambourn was then second to stable-mate Delacroix on his seasonal return in the Group Three Beresford Stakes over 1m2f at the end of March. He will be stepping up in trip again and that should bring out more improvement. He looks a potentially smart middle distance performer and although he may not be O'Brien's number one for the Derby – The Lion Of Winter remains ante-post favourite – if he impresses on the Roodee he could at least be part of the team for the Colts' Classic at Epsom next month. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement The weekend was all about Godolphin with the 'Boys in Blue' landing the first two Classics – the Betfred 2,000 Guineas and 1,000 Guineas with Ruling Court and Desert Flower respectively – but their great rivals Coolmore can hit back in the trials for the Derby and Oaks this week and next. Ballydoyle stable-mate MINNIE HAUK can also book her place at Epsom with victory, also under Ryan Moore, in the Listed Weatherbys ePassport Cheshire Oaks (Fillies) (2.35pm). The three-year-old daughter of Frankel will be making her third career start on the Roodee – a place the Ballydoyle handler likes to send his Epsom hopefuls as there are some similarities on the tight turning track. Minnie Hauk ran twice as a juvenile, finishing second on debut over a mile at Cork at the start of October before getting off the mark at the second attempt later that month, scoring by a neck over Subsonic in a Fillies' Maiden at Leopardstown. Both of those were over a mile but she promises to improve again stepped up to middle distances and she can give O'Brien a record-extending ninth victory in the Cheshire Oaks before a crack at the real thing at Epsom next month. None of O'Brien's previous Cheshire Oaks winners have also triumphed at Epsom with the last to do the double being John Gosden's mighty mare Enable in 2017, although Ballydoyle's Forever Together scored in the Classic having been second on the Roodee the following year. ALI SHUFFLE may be able to land a knockout blow in the opener, the CAA Stellar Lily Agnes EBF Conditions Stakes (GBB) (1.30pm). Karl Burke's two-year-old can bring up a hat-trick of victories and potentially book a trip to next month's Royal Ascot. The speedy daughter of A'Ali has won both her starts so far, being prominent before scoring by two lengths in a Novice Stakes at Redcar at the start of April before a similar success at Beverley later last month. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Ali Shuffle looks an ideal type for this five-furlong contest and with the plum stall one on the Roodee, she can break well and score again. In the other five-furlong sprint, the Ladbrokes Best Odds Guaranteed On Racing Handicap (2.05pm), another who has bagged a good draw in stall two, REDORANGE, can also use it well to triumph. Clive Cox's three-year-old has only won once, over six furlongs on his fourth juvenile start at Yarmouth last September, but he has run well in all his starts. He was gelded over the winter and returned with another good effort to be third to Queen All Star at Sandown last month. With that run under his belt and from an advantageous draw this prominent racer can land another success, this time over the minimum distance. BOB MALI can win the Love Federal Capital Handicap (3.40pm). Charlie Hills' three-year-old was a course and distance winner last September and can triumph again on the Roodee. He is another who was gelded over the winter and the son of Sands Of Mali also made a pleasing return to action, when the three-time winner was second at Newmarket last month. With the cobwebs blown off Bob Mali can return to winning ways. BILLYB can win the finale on day one at Chester, the Horseradish Catering & Events Handicap (4.45pm). Craig Lidster's six-year-old has not won since last June, when scoring over seven-and-a-half furlongs at Beverley. But he ran a couple of good races on the all-weather after that and on his seasonal return he too can get back to winnings ways. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement John and Thady Gosden's MARNIER can land a first victory in the Heineken Maiden Stakes (GBB/GBBPlus Race) (4.10pm). The three-year-old son of Saxon Warrior was unraced as a juvenile but he made a pleasing debut when third to Gethin at Newbury over 1m2f last month. He naturally showed his inexperience but having been slowly away and hanging to his left, he stayed on well enough to give hope he can do much better with racing. He can score ahead of Hugo Palmer's debutant Little Saver from the nearby Manor House Stables of former England and Liverpool FC forward Michael Owen. Wright Ones CHESTER MAY FESTIVAL 2025 (Day One) 1.30pm Ali Shuffle 2.05pm Redorange 2.35pm Minnie Hauk 3.05pm Lambourn (NAP) 3.40pm Bob Mali 4.10pm Marnier 4.45pm Billyb
