Friday turned out to be a red-letter day for Tim Easterby with a short-priced treble at his home track courtesy of Red Spells Danger, Vince d’Amour and U Sure Do. The stable fielded nine of the 50 runners during a showery evening fixture, but plenty braved the cooler temperature, not least for some blistering finishes and accompanying jolly tunes from the band.
The opening Restricted proved more a race to watch than bet on, the market latching on to the Easterby representative Red Spells Danger, whose 3 year old career to date had resulted in close second places at Southwell and Catterick. The 6f contest turned into a breeze for David Allan, who had to do no more than move his hands to achieve an 8 1/2l margin.
Allan had to work only slightly harder to get Vince d’Amour to a 1 1/2l winning distance in the 5f Dr Keith Howard Memorial Handicap. The 5 year old showed good speed to win going away.
However, he chose the wrong Easterby runner in the 6f handicap, selecting Modern Times, whilst Cam Hardie got the leg up on U Sure Do. The 4 year old was outpaced at halfway, but rallied to lead close home and win by a head with a neck to the third. The race had the added complication of a flag start after the stalls malfunctioned, which is never easy to achieve with a group of fired-up sprinters. Horses can make fools of the best of us, eh?
On an evening of beaten favourites, only Masaban upheld favourite backers’ honour after the first, with a comfortable 4l beating of Ben Haslam’s Dalamara in the 1m Traditional Family Sunday May 17th Handicap. Running off top weight, Callum Rodriguez had the race in his pocket from two out for the Edward Bethell stable, and on this performance, Masaban is more than capable of winning again with a penalty.
Two middle distance handicaps closed out the evening. Rowan Scott produced Star Cast to lead 110 yards from the post, and despite a valiant fight back from runner-up and favourite Glistening Nights, Scott was able to hold on to win by a head in the 0-75 race.
The 0-60 3yo handicap to conclude the evening produced a even tighter finish, a short head denying the Bethell-Rodriguez combination a double. Party spoiler was Barry McHugh on Vietnorm, who got up at the death to win on Adrian Paul Keatley’s youngster for a 10th winner of the year so far.
