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Thursday 16 January 2014

@AWCHAMPS Alutiq wins Fast-Track Qualifier & will now wait for £150,000 Final on Good Friday


6.25pm £19,000 Winners Are Welcome At Betdaq Conditions Stakes 6f, Polytrack, the seventh Fast-Track Qualifier

The 5/4 favourite Alutiq, owned by Qatar Racing, trained by Eve Johnson Houghton in Oxfordshire and ridden by Jamie Spencer, got up close home to win going away by a half-length from Oriental Relation (James Given/Graham Lee) in the feature £19,000 Winners Are Welcome At Betdaq Conditions Stakes over six furlongs on Polytrack at Kempton Park on Wednesday, January 15.

As this was a Fast-Track Qualifier, the filly gained a guaranteed free place in the £150,000 32Red.com Three-Year-Old Final over seven furlongs on Good Friday at Lingfield Park on the new £1-million All-Weather Championships Finals Day.

Oriental Relation, a 5/1 chance who had won on his two previous starts, attempted to make all and gained a clear lead when Lee kicked on in the straight. Alutiq, held up in fourth of the six runners, came with a good run to go second by the distance and, making relentless progress, caught the leader close to home to win in 1m 12.29s, a fast time compared to earlier races on the Kempton Park card. The winner last raced when seventh in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket on September 28.

Eve Johnson Houghton commented: "I was thrilled with Alutiq tonight. On this evidence, she should get seven furlongs but obviously there are no guarantees.

"I need to talk to Sheikh Fahad or David Redvers, but I imagine we will put her away and wait for the Good Friday Final.

"Alutiq runs well when fresh and does not need much work. She wants firm ground on turf so we might as well wait for that as well. The plan was to qualify tonight for the All-Weather Championships and then have another break."

Horses qualify for the six championship contests on £1-million All-Weather Championships Finals Day (Good Friday, April 18, 2014) by running in a minimum of three races at Britain's All-Weather tracks - three owned by ARC, Lingfield Park, Southwell and Wolverhampton, and The Jockey Club's Kempton Park - between October 26 and April 12 or else by succeeding in one of the 16 Fast-Track Qualifiers.

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