Racing League is neck and neck following night four at Windsor, with Wales & The West, London & The South and The East all firmly in the hunt with two weeks remaining.
The East led by 7.5 points at the start of play but strong performances from Wales & The West and London & The South have seen them usurp Chris Hughes’ side in the overall standings with 571.5 and 567 points respectively.
Ian Williams proved pivotal as Wales & The West notched three winners on the night, with the Worcestershire trainer’s Night Breeze completing a hat-trick and Parlando taking the concluding £75,000 handicap. Kieran O’Neill partnered both winners, while Benoit de la Sayette also struck for Jamie Osborne’s side on the Brian Meehan-trained Toca Madera.
Roy Kelly-Edwards, who owns Night Breeze, said: “We had a winner in the first at Chepstow with Mokaatil, who was winning his 12th race for us, and then this is the hat-trick up for Night Breeze. It is all down to Ian Williams – he is a top trainer. We have now had 37 winners with him in 10 years, which is incredible really. We feel Night Breeze will be a 12-furlong to two-mile horse next year. He is still a bit green and just does enough.”
Great Acclaim provided the highlight for London & The South as he followed up last week’s victory at Chepstow in a mile handicap for Eve Johnson Houghton and Charlie Bishop.
Winning owner Gareth Owen said: “The first couple of horses I owned could not get in the winner’s enclosure, but I cannot complain about Great Acclaim. Two Racing League wins is fantastic. Charlie gave him another excellent ride, and Eve and her team have done a fantastic job. Windsor is my local course, so it is nice to have a winner here. Whether or not we try for three wins in the Racing League this year, we will see, but he seems to take his racing well.”
The East’s colours were in the winner’s enclosure after the opening five-furlong handicap, with Nazron registering his first win of the year for Roger Varian and Daniel Muscutt.
Reflecting on the night, Hughes said: “A few of them have run under par. That is the honest assessment but, hey-ho, that’s racing. Racing League is very competitive. Having a winner with Nazron was great but also felt bittersweet as he was our only runner in the race – you feel like you have left a few points on the floor in that scenario.
“Newcastle is up next, a galloping track that suits a certain type of horse. I think we have plenty of those horses in our yards and I would expect us to be strong. We look up against it a little bit, with the other leading teams still having a joker each to play, but we will come out all guns blazing over the next two weeks.”
Richard Fahey’s Life On The Rocks posted a notable success for The North in a 10-furlong handicap, a first win of the competition for Mick Quinn’s team.
Winning owner Aidan Ryan said: “Racing League offers great prize money, why wouldn’t you support it? Life On The Rocks has been running consistently all year – this is his fourth win and he has placed three or four times. If you looked at his last couple of runs, we found reasons to say that he was better than the result. We thought he had a real chance today and I told a few people to make a small investment.”
Ireland’s Billy Loughnane overtook Saffie Osborne in the Racing League leading jockey standings, thanks in part to his success on Bennetot in the second mile handicap on the card. Loughnane tops the table on 217 points, placing him seven clear of Osborne.
Loughnane said: “The race went smoothly for Bennetot. There looked to be a lot of pace on paper and originally I was just riding him to run well. We got a nice passage through and he picked up good. It has been a good enough evening with a winner and a couple of places, as the last couple of weeks have been tricky.”
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