Gibbons and Robinson at the double
Graham Gibbons and Philip Robinson were both in fine form at Nottingham on Wednesday as the pair celebrated 67-1 and 58-1 doubles respectively.
Gibbons was first to register his brace and got into the winning groove when landed a spare winning ride aboard 16-1 chance Ochre Bay for the Staffordshire yard of Reg Hollinshead.
The successful son of Polar Prince looked in trouble at halfway in the EBF Maiden Stakes, but made rapid strides when switched to lead close home to defeat 3-1 favourite Trophy Pride by a length.
“We needed that – it has been a while since our last winner,” said Sarah Hollinshead, daughter of the successful trainer.
“This horse is a homebred half-brother to Gilded Cove, who has been a consistent horse for us on the all-weather.
“His owner, Mervyn Johnson, lives near to Wolverhampton and as we are big supporters of that track I imagine he will be kept on the go through the winter now.”
The double was sealed in the second division as 3-1 chance Terentia made all.
Stepping up on a pleasing debut effort at Haydock last month, the Ed McMahon-trained daughter of Diktat was smartly away to bag a good position on the stands rail.
And she quickened up pleasingly when the field looked to be closing in on her at the furlong pole, beating Miss Dixie bythree-quarters of a length.
“I think it was probably the weaker of the two divisions but she has stepped up from her debut effort,” said McMahon.
“That’s 22 for the season now and hopefully we’ve still got a trick or two up our sleeves.”
Robinson’s double came later in the day and both were for boss Michael Jarvis, with Traprain coming from well off the pace to take the Howard Moss “Lifetime in Racing” Handicap.
Owned by Ray Anderson Green, the three-year-old showed plenty of guts - despite a slightly awkward head carriage – to hold off Folio by a neck.
Robinson’s brace was completed when Princelet overturned 11-10 favourite Top Man Tee in the first division of the Letheby & Christopher Stable Staff Maiden Stakes.
“He’s had a few niggly problems which have kept him off the course for a few months but he’s a nice horse,” said Jarvis’ representative Paul Rutter.
“I don’t know what the future holds for him but he saw this trip (10 furlongs) out well and he showed the right attitude.”
The second division fell to Play Me, who scraped home to land the odds for Peter Chapple-Hyam and jockey Alan Munro.
Trainer Declan Daly ended a two-month losing spell as Midris came home strongly to land the opening event.
The progressive daughter of Namid, an 11-2 chance, kept on well for Shane Kelly to beat Royal Citadel in the City Life Magazine Fillies’ Novice Auction Stakes.
“I thought she’d run a big race but we have been hitting the bar o many times recently, I couldn’t be confident,” said Daly.
“She will go for the Listed Bosra Sham fillies’ race at Newmarket later this month. She’s won well and she deserves to take her chance.
“You can see from the look of her she is going to make a nice horse next season, so we’ll put her away after that and look forward to the future.”
