Festive bans for top trio

Falling foul of the stewards is usually met with huge disappointment by offending jockeys – yet Paul Mulrennan, Dale Gibson and Hayley Turner are unlikely to be too upset following their respective brushes with authority at Southwell.

The trio were all found guilty of improper riding for using the whip with excessive frequency, but the punishment dished out to the first pair amounts to little more than an extended Christmas break.

For Mulrennan and Gibson were only hit with one-day bans, which may be served in front of a roaring fire on Boxing Day.

Turner will miss December 26-28, but at least gained some compensation when getting 10-1 chance Ridgeway Jazz home by a short head in the Play Golf Come Racing Nursery.

“I was tracking the favourite but that one was beaten soon after we turned in,” Turner explained afterwards.

“She’s a tough little thing and she stuck at it for me.”

Mulrennan also hit the target when Haroldini (3-1) took division two of the Go Pontin’s Handicap.

His two-and-a-half-length victory was infinitely easier than that posted by 9-2 chance The Salwick Flyer, who grabbed a last-gasp win in the first division under a determined ride from Phillip Makin.

“Off the home turn I thought we were just playing for place money with the way the leader (runner-up Shadow Jumper) was going,” said the winning jockey.

“But he picked up really well and I knew we would get up from the furlong pole.”

Chris Catlin posted a 12-1 double courtesy of Victory Quest and Maslak.

The first-named justified favouritism at 9-4 in the Mark McKay 21st Birthday Handicap, while Maslak landed odds of 3-1 to gain a first success at the 16th attempt in the Pontin’s Book Early And Save Maiden Stakes.

Winning trainer Peter Hiatt said: “He’s deserved a race but he doesn’t pick up too well so this surface suits him well – we’ll probably come back here.”

Unlike Catlin, weighing-room colleague Steve Drowne had a bad day at the office.

After being turned over aboard odds-on shot Counting House in the race won by Maslak, the jockey gave up two winning rides as he was still feeling the effects of a spill on Friday’s card.

Andrew Elliott profited aboard Jord (7-1) in the pontins.com Handicap, while Jean-Pierre Guillambert booted home Bryan Smart’s useful-looking Prince Hamlet (5-1) in the EBF Maiden.

Of his one-and-a-quarter-length scorer, Smart enthused: “He’s a nice horse and I’ve only had him for around five weeks.

“I’ll see what the owner (Sheikh Rashid Bin Mohammed) wants to do but we could well wait for a turf campaign now.”

Shaydreambeliever (7-1) showed admirable determination to hold off the sustained challenge of Bedouin Blue in the Pontin’s Book Early Claiming Stakes.

However, the bravest competitor on show was surely the gentleman who made light of icy conditions and darkening skies to streak past the winning post after the final race.