Robin Hoods Bay Takes Winter Derby & Will Be Back For The Richest All-Weather Race on Good Friday

3.50pm £100,000 Group Three coral.co.uk Winter Derby - Fast-Track Qualifier, 1m 2f, Polytrack

Robin Hood's Bay (10/1), owned by Alan Pickering, trained by Ed Vaughan and ridden by Luke Morris, went one better than last year when winning the £100,000 Group Three coral.co.uk Winter Derby over 10 furlongs at Lingfield Park on Saturday, March 22.

The winner of this third Fast-Track Qualifier on the day is guaranteed a place in the £200,000 Coral Easter Classic All-Weather Middle-Distance Championship over course and distance on Good Friday, April 18, the richest race ever run on the All-Weather in Britain.

Robin Hoods Bay was held up in second last and crept into the race before coming with a good run in the straight to catch Godolphin's Windhoek (11/4, Saeed bin Suroor/Silvestre de Sousa) well inside the final furlong and win going away by three quarters of a length in 2m 1.41s. Aussie Reigns (33/1, William Knight/Adam Kirby) kept on in third, a length away, while the 7/4 favourite Grandeur (Jeremy Noseda/Ryan Moore), who broke well from stall 14, raced in fourth before fading to eighth of the 14 runners.

Vaughan, who trains Newmarket, declared: "Robin Hoods Bay has always threatened to win a big one and was a bit unlucky last year, when he got caught in running.

"I have trained him for this race, as I have said all the way through. We had a couple of little issues with him earlier on and I just wasn't able to train him conventionally.

"I have let him have 10 per cent improvement with each race. This was the day for him and now we will have a crack at the Good Friday race.

"Initially, I thought that he wasn't travelling today - he is a horse that can travel really well but he wasn't travelling as well as he can today - and that has shown that they have gone a really good pace.

"Races are always perfect when they have gone too fast. That's what this horse needs and the harder the gallop, the better he is.

"I went into this race thinking that a lot of the big guns might come back for Good Friday. The owner loves Lingfield and I think I said when this horse was rated 64 that he was the best horse I have trained. He has gone and proved it today.

"We thought today would be the big day but we will have one more crack on Good Friday. We have no reason not to go for the race and he will have a well-deserved break after that."

Luke Morris said: "Things worked out nicely for Robin Hoods Bay in the race. The plan was to ride him a bit closer but they went a proper gallop throughout so I was sitting there, taking my time.

"He has got a good turn of foot and the way the race was run played into his hands. Usually, he gives you a good guide of the pace and, because he was off the bridle early doors, it meant that they were going a proper gallop.

 "I am sure that he will be back for Good Friday now. What you have seen today is his level of ability and it's a good level."

2.40pm £45,000 Listed bookmakers.co.uk Hever Sprint Stakes - Fast-Track Qualifier, 5f, Polytrack

Stepping Point (16/1) was the decisive winner the £45,000 Listed bookmakers.co.uk Hever Sprint Stakes (2.40pm) over five furlongs, the first of three Fast-Track Qualifiers on today's Lingfield Park card.

Trained by William Muir and ridden by Martin Dwyer, the five-year-old son of Kyllachy scored by two lengths from Iptisam (8/1, James Tate/Luke Morris) on his All-Weather debut in a fast time of 57.12s.

Stepping Point was always in the first three as the eventual third Even Stevens (16/1, Scott Dixon/Freddy Tylicki) took them along and went into the lead with a furlong remaining.

The winner secures a guaranteed free place in the £150,000 bookmakers.co.uk All-Weather Sprint Championship on Good Friday, April 18, back at Lingfield Park.

Last year's winner Ladies Are Forever (the 3/1 joint favourite, Geoff Oldroyd/Robert Tart) was the unlucky horse in the race, receiving a hefty bump when turning into the straight. She finished well to be fifth, two necks and a head behind the second.

Dwyer, celebrating victory on his comeback ride following a Southwell fall from Columbian Roulette on January 3, commented: "My daughter told me that I would win on my first ride back, so it's all thanks to Daisy.

"Stepping Point did it great - he transformed in the middle of last year and has been gelded over the winter.

"He has come out firing and it was an armchair ride for me. It helps when you get a horse that travels like he does but I have done three solid weeks in Oaksey House (in Lambourn) and, if I had known that it would be that easy, I wouldn't have bothered!

"I had a bit of bad luck - it was a heavy fall - but I came out of it and it is onwards and upwards."

Muir, who sent Stepper Point back to the track after a 176-day break, said: "I haven't overdone him at home.

"I thought he was a certainty on his debut at Newbury as a two-year-old but he only beat two horses. Then I thought he would go well on his first start as a three-year-old but he finished in the middle.

"Last year, he took his first run, so I thought we would come down here under a penalty and give him a spin. He has had one gallop - Martin rode him in one piece of work and said that he was very similar to Big Buzz and Fleckerl in that he feels really well in himself and he's not 100 per cent fit but we may as well start here.

"Henry Candy asked me what I was going to do with him at the end of last year and I said that we were going to keep him and geld him. He said: "Keep these Kyllachys because they get better with age". This horse has always shown serious ability at home.

"Stepper Point has not come in his coat and he's a gelding now. When he was a colt, I could have given him a wheelbarrow of food and he would have eaten the whole lot but he is a gelding, so he was leaving a handful of food here and a handful there.

"I was saying to the owner Clive (Edginton) that we could run here and Martin won't knock him around if he blew up but as he is game and competitive he will get into a race. He walks around quiet as a lamb and he is never one to do anything so it is hard to put a handle on him.

"Martin has had a hard time. We had a few decent horses winning and then we had that race put to bed (at Southwell) - that can happen. Somebody rung me up yesterday and asked me about Martin and I said: "In life, if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger" and I hope that it has made him stronger.

"We will probably go to Good Friday now because there is a few quid on offer, unless the French entice us over there. We have a few options but, coming down here, I thought that we would run in this race and, if he did happen to win, it gives us the option to come back.

"Something has jumped into him coming out of the stalls because he has lost a shoe and got cuts down both sides of his near hind. As long as they don't swell up - they look superficial.

"Everybody knows that I am a nutter, but I have said it all the way through that this horse will win a Group One."

3.15pm £45,000 Listed 32Red Spring Cup - Fast-Track Qualifier, 7f, Polytrack

The second Fast-Track Qualifier was the seven-furlong £45,000 Listed 32Red Spring Cup over seven furlongs, which was won by 5/4 favourite Ertijaal (William Haggas/Paul Hanagan) who gains a guaranteed free berth in the £150,000 32Red All-Weather Three-Year-Old Championship on Good Friday.

Ertijaal, the 5/4 favourite despite being drawn on the outside in stall 13 and racing on an All-Weather surface for the first timer, broke smartly and raced keenly in the lead before settling in third.

The three-year-old Oasis Dream, having his third start after being an impressive six-length maiden winner at Yarmouth last year, led again into the straight but was all out to hold on from the fast-finishing American Hope (16/1,Mike Murphy/Shane Kelly) by a head in 1m 22.72s.

Haggas remarked about Hamdan Al Maktoum-owned colt who holds a QIPCO 2000 Guineas entry: "He has got a race under his belt. It was not a very nice draw, but he was pretty flat out at the end.

"I am very glad that we got this out of the way and it is very hard to make an assessment having just seen it. We will see it at home later but I am glad to get this first race out of the way and now we can train him properly and concentrate on him.

"Paul said the track was very slow and he got nothing out the track but he was happy enough. It was just messy - Ertijaal was a bit fresh going down and a bit restless in the stalls.

"It has been a long time since he ran and he is still very young in his mind. That will bring him on a lot, I am sure.

"He has been working nicely - he worked last week with Premio Loco and went very nicely - but he hasn't done a lot. Although he didn't blow much, we can get stuck into him now."

Hanagan, on a day trip back from Dubai, added: "I was really pleased with Ertijaal from such a bad draw. He will come on an absolute ton and he was just pricking his ears in front.

"He is a big baby - he only had two runs last year - and I was very happy with that. He feels a nice horse but it is early days."

Murphy commented: "It was a great run from American Hope and I am really thrilled.

"I said that he would come on for his last race and you can see that he is still a frame of a horse. You would like to think that he would come on again and improve for the step up to a mile.

"We will take him back and see where we go with him. He enjoyed that and I thought that we were closing down on the winner, although I would have to see the race again.

"He's a proper horse and still a big baby."