FORMER Olympic gold medallist Chris Brasher purchased an early Christmas present and then promptly paid most of the expenses after Maid For Adventure carried his colours to victory at Ludlow yesterday.
Brasher, who landed the 3,000 metres steeplechase at the 1956 Melbourne Games, outbid trainer Bill Turner to secure Sleeptite, winner of the Tanners Cava Conditional Jockeys Selling Handicap Hurdle, for 3,600 guineas.
And the sprightly Brasher showed he retained plenty of his old dash when hurrying to the winner's enclosure to welcome back Maid For Adventure, who took the Hoechst Roussel Panacur EBF Novices' Hurdle in style under Barry Fenton.
"It must be my lucky day," beamed Brasher. "I've bought a horse and almost paid for it, by winning with one of my own."
Maid for Adventure's handler Henrietta Knight said of the 10 lengths scorer "She was bought to go chasing and that's what she will ultimately do. But for this season she'll be aimed at the final of the race at Newbury in March.
"Chris kindly let Barry keep the mount as our stable jockey Jason Titley is here today but Barry gave her such a good ride at Newbury last time and he decided to stay loyal to him," she added.
Titley bounced back from six weeks on the sidelines following sustaining bruised kidneys in a schooling accident when Too Sharp became Knight's second winner of the day in the Tanners Burgundy Handicap Chase.
"I lost three pints of blood and had to have a transfusion which wasn't very nice," revealed Titley. "But I've been riding out for Henrietta for three weeks and everything seems to be fine now, especially as I've ridden a winner on my first ride back."
Last term's champion conditional jockey Richard Johnson notched his 50th winner of the term after Super Coin took advantage of Holy Wanderer's last fence mishap to land the Tanners Wines Novices' Chase by 15 lengths.
Gerry Hogan, rider of Holy Wanderer, gave up his remaining ride of the afternoon when badly bruised and shaken in the nasty looking incident.
. Two further all weather meetings were added to this week's racing programme yesterday as the British Horse racing Board sought to beat a potentially prolonged freeze up.
With frost threatening to disrupt the jumping programme, extra standby meetings have been scheduled for Sdulliwell on Fridays and Wolverhampton on Saturday.
As a result, some racing action is virtually guaranteed from St Stephen's Day through to the weekend with an additional meeting at Lingfield on Thursday ensuring there is no complete wipeout.
Entries for both new fixtures will close at noon today.
