LAST MEETING REVIEW

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With another action-packed day of racing ahead of us, last Tuesday we held an evening meeting with the top leading trainer and jockey landing the feature race with Darling Maltaix. .

Just the 4-runners went to post for the 2m5f Get Daily Tips On attheraces.com Handicap Chase which saw connections of Darling Maltaix win a handy prize of £6,107.76. The Paul Nicholls-trained horse went off a 7/4F, ridden by Harry Cobden, looked sharp over the 16 fences he took. The 8-year-old ran home a readily winner in what looked an open contest on paper to win by 2¼ lengths over the Suzy Smith-trained Pilbara who finished in second. Gavin Sheehan kicked off the evening with a success when teaming up with Sue Gardner in the Racing Partnership TRP Novices’ Handicap Hurdle over 2m2½f. A nice confident ride from Gavin Sheehan in the opener, as he held up Alramz, but began to make headway through the field 5 out. He sill looked to still be travelling strongly 3 out and albeit drifting right on the run in, this gelding got off the mark at the 7th time of

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asking to win going away by 4 ½ lengths. Gavin Sheehan completed a quick-fire double and could not ask for a better start to the 5 evening, as Delight Of Dubai won well as joint favourite in the Racing Partnership TRP Handicap Chase over 2m5f. Despite jumping right at some of her fences, this mare got up to win at the fifth time of asking over fences, after going close on her last 3 appearances (finishing third, second and third), it was only a matter of time before she got her head in front. The 3/1 shot led after 2 out and was gifted the race at the final fence when Vocaliser made an error at the last and wasn’t able to recover in time on the run-in.

DARLING MALTAIX won our class 3 handicap chase

It turned out to be an excellent start to the evening for favourite backers as Kilmington Cross also landed the short odds of 10/11 and backed up her success here from the 11th June. This mare is clearly a handicapper heading in the right direction as she completed her hat-trick in the newtonabbotracing.com Novices’ Hurdle over 2m5½f and although the step up in trip was her main concern, she gave it another bold front-running display to make all by 3¼ lengths. She remains on a mark of 120 so could go in again next time out too and clearly likes it around here. Another success for Paul Nicholls on the evening came in the Janet Denning Fifehead Farms Memorial Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle and this was by far the easiest success on the card. Ben Bromley, claiming 7lb, gave Chez Hans a beautiful ride, tracking the leaders throughout, to come home a readily winner by 11 lengths. I bet everyone on the night was gutted about the 11/4 price after seeing such a wonderful performance by the young jockey. The penultimate race saw another winning favourite in the St Austell Brewery Handicap Hurdle over 3m2½f as Gavin Sheehan completed a hat-trick on the night. Drumlee Watar returned to action in good style on his first run back from a wind operation and was always kept handy by his jockey throughout. The Warren Greatrex-trained gelding went clear two hurdles out and stayed on strongly to the line, to bolt home by 11 lengths and land the 5/2 odds which again looked a very fair price. And to conclude an excellent evening of racing here at Newton Abbot, we had the Tich Cleave Ladies Man Classic Novices’ Handicap Chase over 3m2f. Sean Bowen made sure he got the job completed on the short-priced Kingston King, who went off at 4/6, and it really was a great night for punters who backed the favourites. David Rees’ in-mate disputed the lead throughout and albeit not fluent at the 6th and 15th fence, he went clear after 3 out. Despite making a final error at the last, he stayed on gamely to win by 3¼ lengths and he will no doubt be winning again.

6 PHOTOS: 1 - Alramz - no image 2 - Delight Of Dubai no image 3 - Kilmington Cross 4 - chez hans 5 - Darling Maltaix 6 - Drumlee Watar 7 - Kingston King