Little to split the Thursday open race scorers at Newcastle
With Hove abandoned, there were just four open races on Thursday night at Newcastle, and there was little to split the 480m winners on the night.
Three spots covers the three 480m winners at Newcastle
28.71 was the benchmark time at Newcastle on Thursday night, set first by Raymond Hale's Unsurprisingly and then by Fabulous Adriana for Joe Edgar.
Hale's winner showed enough of a turn of foot to the bend to avoid the worst of the trouble behind him, going around behind the early leader Unanimous Leo. He got the better of that rival as they exited the back straight, ultimately running out a comfortable winner by a little over three lengths.
The winner for Edgar got to the front early and made all the running. She produced a sectional time almost two lengths slower than Unsurprisingly before clocking the same end time. It has been a while since she gave a run of this quality, but she remains a tough one to contain when she's on the bunny.
The third 480m winner on the card was Love The Dogs for Dean Blackbird, stopping the clock in 28.74. He was another who showed the best dash into the opening bend, scoring for the fifth time in his last six level start races. This was a breakthrough at open race level and a career-best performance, so it will be interesting to see if he can back this up.
A sprint race saw a win for Niosfearrnabolt and Chloe Hardy. The veteran has got himself into a nice groove over the last two months, picking up his third win in that time, his second here to go along with one at Sunderland. The 2024 National Sprint champion is very lightly raced for his age, but it has been good to see him putting together a string of efforts this summer.
