Sunday trebles for Taberner and Marston

Taberner treble at Sheffield

It was a good afternoon for Richie Taberner with his Sheffield raiders, grabbing three winners. Countess Penny was the final one of those winners, landing the closing race on the card by an impressive seven lengths. She was quick into stride and was well clear of her rivals from an early stage. 

Eternal Spirit was the middle leg of the trio, adopting the same gun and run style, and also coming home seven lengths to the good. Stamina is her strong suit, running over 955m at Hove on her second start in the UK when with Seamus Cahill. Having gone around in front, she was never going to be coming back.

There was a surprise for punters with Taberner's opening leg as Aero Sophie started a day of ping and go at 22/1. She scored by seven and a half lengths to make get the wide-margin treble underway. Her form at her home track of Monmore shows that she has some early gears but a 4.20 split on a track subsequently marked -20 was sensational!

Diane Henry picked up a pair of winners, led by Grouchos Cossie who bounced back quickly from a first round exit in the Ladbrokes Gold Cup at Monmore. He has now won seven of his last nine starts at this venue, with one of the two defeats coming in the semis of the Time 3 Steps To Victory.

Betgoodwin Eddy started the double for Henry. He had ended up in a very deep sprint contest on his debut for the kennel last week, and it was no surprise to see him improve for the step up to 500m. There is a big engine there, sent over as part of Liam Dowling's team for the Derby. It will be interesting to see how he progresses. 

The 480m distance here really suits Epic Command. Sean Davy's charge has the instantaneous early pace to take full advantage of the shorter run to the bend, making it a perfect 2/2 over the trip. He does have winning form over 500m as well here, but the lesser yardage works in his favour. 

There was a quick exit from Lisa Stephenson's So Its Strate in the Ladbrokes Summer Stayers Classic at Monmore but he made up for it returned to his home track with a second win over 660m. He is a strong type over this trip, a rare winner from off the pace on the card, though saying that he had already worked his way into second halfway round the opening two bends, albeit four lengths off the leader.

There was a deep sprint contest on the card which was won by the red jacket of Rose Draper's Ballintee Roxy. She was just picked up on the run-in last week in the heats but with the cobwebs blown away with that first run since October, she produced a strong performance to reverse that form from behind.

The other open on the card went to Samatha Atkinson's Caseys Dylan, a four runner contest where the leader went lame halfway around the bend and hampered the dog in third. It could be that the winner would have been good enough to score in any case but he got a sizeable slice of luck.

Three for Marston at Valley

There was also a treble at the Valley where Craig Marston saw Cazzers Ellie pick up the quicker of his two sprint winners on the card. She turned handy enough to the pace and proved the strongest of them coming home, getting to the line with a length in hand. 

First Sight was also the winner of a sprint for Marston, the pup getting herself into position early ahead of the long odds-on favourite to do enough. That early pace to get to the bend in front made all the difference to pick up her second open race win at the track.

Over four bends, there was a win for Marston's Kates Goldie. There was almost nothing to separate her in the market from Grovenor Anna but a quicker break saw the winner clear at the bend as her main rival found all sorts of trouble.

The quickest of the sprint winners on the card was Anna Jeffrey's Only Live Once. He has won three of his four starts since coming back from a near four-month absence. He's only a couple of weeks away from being a veteran but that didn't stop him popping out in front and making all of the running. 

Another who made the best of their way home from the opening strides was Coding. She has been in flying form over the last couple of months for Christian Darch, picking up her first open race success. She had been the winner of seven of her last 12 graded starts prior to this win.

Another to make all of the running on the card was Tony Morgan's Crokers Sun. He had been hitting the woodwork since his last win in early August, runner-up on four occasions, but he made no mistake at the traps to get himself back to winning ways. 

The other open race winner on the card was Dalton Smith's Ballymac Shelly. On a day for the front runners, she got herself to the opening bend in front and that was all she wrote.