Welsh raiders in top form at Devon track
NEWTON Abbot’s jumps meeting on Friday proved highly profitable for Welsh raiders, who triumphed in five of the seven races. James Davies rode Dame Sarra to victory in only her second outing over hurdles. She won twice on the all-weather for Ed Dunlop last year and showed grit to hold off a Fergal O’brien odds-on shot. That was Davies’s seventh winner of the season, just two fewer than he rode in the whole of 2023-24. No Getaway scored for Robbie Llewellyn in the two-mile chase. The veteran has been running in hunter chases over further and fell last time out at the Devon course, but suffered no illeffects, returning to win there for the second time. It was jockey Charlie Price’s first jumps winner of the season. In the long-distance chase James Bowen won on Neil Mulholland’s Broomfields Cave, who showed great tenacity to overcome his principal opponent on the runin. He might not have won if his main rival hadn’t persistently jumped to his right, which wasted a lot of ground over threeand-a-quarter miles on a tight left-handed circuit like Newton Abbot. Jack Tudor rode a confident race on Hammer Dan, who won at 12-1. Trainer David Pipe put his improvement down to the quicker going. Finally, Peter, Micky and Sean Bowen won the bumper with their debutant Alan De Banks. The horse, bought as a yearling by Sean and his brother James, was fully 10 lengths behind the leaders turning into the straight, before suddenly producing a great burst of speed to win. Tudor and Pipe were in the Uttoxeter winner’s enclosure the following evening after Mr Tambourine Man took the threemile hurdle convincingly. The same combination won by six lengths at Worcester last month and the horse defied a six-pound rise to win this similar contest. Also at Uttoxeter, Ben Jones rode Just Chasing May to land a novice hurdle. In April he put in a much-improved effort to finish third, and in May he had just been headed when falling with Jones at the final flight. This time, he won easily. Ffos Las’s 15th Birthday Race Day takes place on Sunday, with live music before and after a seven-race programme.