Good Acclaim maintains his unbeaten record in serious style at Nottingham

Good Acclaim makes it 3/3

The day after Good Acclaim made his winning debut at Star Pelaw, this column suggested that "he could be a nice one to follow into the new year." Two more runs and a pair of wins since and he is proving to be exactly that for Stuart Tighe.

After just those three starts, he is still very much a blank page, and with no idea just how high his ceiling is going to be, that makes him a very exciting prospect. He clocked 17.58 last night, six spots quicker than his prior Nottingham win despite having been away from race action for eight weeks.

As we mentioned after that Star Pelaw win, he is very closely relate to Dynamic Force who had an amazing run through the Derby last year. The three rivals he beat have 16 open race wins between them, smart types in their own right but he beat them with plenty in hand.

Hillend Millie is another rapid improver, taking the step up to open class in her stride. She picked up the opening heat of a dual-distance competition, making it five wins from her last six runs for Paul Timmins. Her winning time was a length and a half quicker than the second heat which went to Dean Blackbird's Killieford Goram.

He has produced a lot of runner-up efforts of late, so it was good to see him get his head back in front again. He became a bit of a 590m Star Pelaw specialist last autumn, but he did have a prior graded win at this track early in 2025.

Ruth Lambe won the other open on the card, though not with the runner that the market expected. Freeway Bell led home Ruths Lass in a race where three of the four runners had their heads in front at one stage. The winner had been tried over 660m at Dunstall last time out and that stamina helped her get on top late on.