Gillard lands double and Sussex duo strike on Bob Champion day at Plumpton

By Will Lefebve

High Street bookies operating in or around Sherborne, Dorset could well have suffered a financial battering thanks to a series of results at Plumpton.

It was the Gillard and Tizzard show as Mark and Joe, the two near neighbour trainers from the West Country, grabbed three of the eight races on an afternoon of continuous drizzle.

Gillard completed a 155-1 double with Clinton Lane in the opener and Kilcummin in race four, the two geldings both partnered by the trainer’s younger of two sons, 22-year-old Fergus.

It was always on the cards that 11-1 shot Clinton Lane would nab Goodwin Face and Roman Roy on the run-in to score by a neck and a length, such was his gritty determination and will-to-win.

A delighted Mark declared: “We took this horse all the way to Hexham earlier in the year, and thought he had a real chance, but he was a real disappointment, and was pulled up. Today’s victory was no surprise, mind you.

“He’ll go ‘chasing later this season, but there are no immediate plans for him.”

The grey Kilcummin (12-1) provided the Gillards with their second success on the card when storming clear up the run-in to deny local hope and topweight Saligo Bay, the Moore-trained 2-1 favourite.

In between the two Gillard winners, West Orchard, sent east by Joe Tizzard, proved a fruitful choice for his backers by romping clear of Kankin and Jack Doyen to take the two-and-half mile chase at 2.55.

A fourth West Country triumph came via the Paul Nicholls-trained hurdles debutant Touquet, pushed clear on the run-in by jockey Lorcan Williams to land the second leg of the novices’ hurdle by seven lengths.

Former champion trainer Nicholls had earlier suffered a minor setback when his highly-regarded Roman Roy, starting hot favourite for the first division of the novices hurdle, could only manage third place behind Clinton Lane.

Barbury Castle trainer Alan King is becoming known as the “Plumpton Plunderer” with his regular winning visits to the East Sussex venue, and Menaggio, given a polished ride by Tom Cannon, proved up to the task when inching steadily clear of pacemaking War Lord in the closing stages to land the Nick Embiricos Memorial Handicap Chase.

Suzy Smith of Angmering and Nick Gifford (Findon) both successfully stepped up to the plate for Sussex.

Smith provided the winner of race six when Tapley and Gavin Sheehan came up trumps to deny Man Of The Sea and Davidoc, and half an hour later, it was the turn of Gifford when his game mare River Tyne edged out Hobb’s Delight in a pulsating finish to the long distance novices’ handicap chase.

How appropriate it was that the race should be titled the Aldaniti Partnership Novices’ Chase because it was Aldaniti that gave Nick Gifford’s father Josh and Bob Champion that magical Aintree Grand National Triumph in 1981.