RAY COCHRANE celebrated with a winner in the first flat race of the year at Lingfield yesterday and followed up with another 4-1 victory in the next race but he reflected on an accident which could have kept him out of the saddle for a long time.

Cochrane hit the front over three furlongs out on Wottashambles in the Shelley Handicap and won easily by five lengths and a neck from Captain Marmalade and Red Spectacle, the 2-1 favourite.

Cochrane had been injured when his mount Nijo broke out of the stalls before Wolverhampton's showpiece £50,000 added race on December 2nd. He said yesterday: "At the time I thought I had broken my leg in three places but it turned out not to be as bad as I thought."

Wottashambles, backed down from 6-1, is trained by Les Montague Hall, who said: "This chap was my first winner as a trainer last year when he won a boys' race at Chepstow. His recent run over hurdles at Windsor sharpened him up."

Cochrane had Matt McCormack's colt, Charterhouse Xpres in the leading quartet from the outset and made virtually all in the Tennyson Claiming Stakes to beat Jemsilverthorn and Gi La Hugh by half a length and a short head.