@AWChamps Tarooq Takes Thrilling £45,000 Six-Furlong Fast-Track Qualifier

1.45pm £45,000 Listed Compare Bookmakers At bookmakers.co.uk Cleves Stakes 6f (Polytrack)

There was a thrilling finish to the opening £45,000 Listed Compare Bookmakers At bookmakers.co.uk Cleves Stakes over six furlongs, a Fast-Track qualifier for the £150,000 bookmakers.co.uk All-Weather Sprint on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18.

The David Barron-trained Tarooq 5/1 co-favourite), brought through on the inside to challenge by Graham Gibbons, swooped to get the better of Danny Tudhope-ridden Rivellino (7/1) from Karl Burke's stables by a head in the last strides with the fast-finishing Hoof It (5/1 co-favourite, ridden by Jamie Spencer & trained by Mick Easterby) who made his run on the outside of the 12-strong field, the same distance back in third. The two other 5/1 co-favourites were Ladies Are Forever (sixth), prominent for a long way, and Hawkeyethenoo (seventh), who was last turning in and never quite got going.

Tarooq, who broke the six-furlong Polytrack record at Lingfield Park last time out on December 18, came close to his own record with a time of 1m 8.94s, just 0.19s outside the record.

Gibbons said: "Tarooq loves it at Lingfield and he knows his way round. They didn't really go a million miles an hour for the first furlong and then took off up the hill, so I got him at it a bit coming down the hill. We always know that he is going to finish his race.

"They went a million miles an hour when he broke the track record here last time, which teed up the race for him, but they didn't go off quite as hard early on today. Coming on the inside is the shortest way around.

"He is definitely worth his place in the line-up on Finals Day. He is going to be taking on pretty much the same horses and will take a bit of beating."

Horses qualify for the six championships 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.

The winners of the Fast-Track Qualifiers so far:-

1) 31/10/13 Listed 32Red / EBFstallions.com Fleur De Lys Fillies' Stakes, Lingfield Park, Forgive (Richard Hannon/Silvestre de Sousa) achieved a guaranteed place, with free entry, in the £150,000 32Red.com Fillies' & Mares' Stakes, run over seven furlongs, on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014 at Lingfield Park.

2) 16/11/13 Listed coral.co.uk Churchill Stakes, Lingfield Park, Prince Alzain (Gerard Butler/Oisin Murphy) gained a guaranteed place, with free entry, in the £200,000 Coral Easter Classic, run over 10 furlongs, on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014 at Lingfield Park.

3) 16/11/13 Listed Best Odds At bookmakers.co.uk Golden Rose Stakes, Lingfield Park, Valbchek (Jeremy Noseda/Shane Kelly), secured a guaranteed place, with free entry, in the £150,000 bookmakers.co.uk Sprint Stakes, run over six furlongs, on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014 at Lingfield Park.

4) 20/11/2013 Listed Winners Are Welcome At Betdaq EBF Stallions Hyde Stakes, Kempton Park, Sirius Prospect (Dean Ivory/Robert Winston) gained a guaranteed place, with free entry, in the £150,000 ladbrokes.co.uk Mile Stakes on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014 at Lingfield Park.

5) 23/11/2013 32Red Conditions Stakes, Lingfield Park, Complicit (Paul Cole/Graham Lee) won in course record time and secured a guaranteed free place in the £150,000 32Red Three-Year-Old Final over seven furlongs on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014 at Lingfield Park.

6) 11/01/2014 Ladbrokes Conditions Stakes, Lingfield Park, Grey Mirage (Marco Botti/Martin Harley) gained a guaranteed place, with free entry, in the £150,000 ladbrokes.co.uk Mile Stakes on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014 at Lingfield Park

7) 15/01/2014 Winners Are Welcome At Betdaq Conditions Stakes, Kempton Park, Alutiq (Eve Johnson Houghton/Jamie Spencer) secured a guaranteed free place in the £150,000 32Red Three-Year-Old Stakes over seven furlongs on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014 at Lingfield Park.

8) 22/01/2014 32Red Conditions Stakes, Lingfield Park, Arch Villain (Amanda Perrett/Jim Crowley) gained a guaranteed free place in the £150,000 32Red Casino Marathon Stakes over two miles on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014 at Lingfield Park.

9) 22/02/2014 Listed Compare Bookmakers At bookmakers.co.uk Cleves Stakes, Lingfield Park Tarooq (David Barron/Graham Gibbons) secured a guaranteed free place in the £150,000 bookmakers.co.uk All-Weather Sprint on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18.

Lingfield Park Race Programme All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 18, 2014

13.45 £50,000 coral.co.uk All-Weather Championships Apprentice Handicap (1m 4f)

14.20 £150,000 32Red.com All-Weather Fillies' & Mares' Championships Conditions Stakes (7f)

14.55 £150,000 32Red All-Weather Three-Year-Old Championships Conditions Stakes (7f)

15.30 £150,000 32Red Casino All-Weather Marathon Championships Conditions Stakes (2m)

16.05 £150,000 bookmakers.co.uk All-Weather Sprint Championships Conditions Stakes (6f)

16.40 £150,000 ladbrokes.co.uk All-Weather Mile Championships Conditions Stakes (1m)

17.20 £200,000 Coral Easter Classic All-Weather Middle-Distance Championships Conditions Stakes (1m 2f)

The dedicated website www.awchampionships.co.uk has more details, including all the leaderboards and the twice-weekly blog from jockey Luke Morris.