ENGLISH RACING/News round-up: Sentinel completed a four-timer with an impressive success in the £20,000 Tote Trifecta Bibury Cup at Salisbury yesterday.
The fast-improving three-year-old was clearly ill-at-ease on the ground, hanging badly in the home straight but still managed to quicken when asked by Eddie Ahern with over a quarter of a mile to go. Hitting the front just inside the final furlong, he accounted for Imtihan by a 1¼ lengths.
Trainer Gerard Butler said he had no specific plans for the colt, but despite soaring up the handicap, Sentinel will clearly be winning more races. "Eddie said he hated the ground and this is the trickiest track he has ever run at and I think it caught him out a bit," said Butler.
"This was more good education for him and we'll see what happens how. He will let us know when he is ready to run next.
"If he is fresh and well then we will look for something in the next couple of weeks but it may be that on this kind of ground, it's taken something out of him. I let my horses tell me when they are ready to run."
Michael Hills delivered Calcutta with a well-timed challenge to end a drought of winners being suffered by his father Barry.
The Hills yard had been without a success for more than a fortnight until the rider brought the 13 to 2 chance fast and late to score in the Noel Cannon Memorial Trophy.
The quirky six-year-old needs to hit the front as late as possible and did just that, scoring by a neck from dead-heaters Finished Article and Dennis Our Menace.
Jockey-in-form Martin Dwyer took the riding honours with a sparkling 84 to 1 treble. On the mark twice at Royal Ascot, Dwyer struck first with Lochridge, who upheld the family name as she took the fillies' maiden.
The daughter of top sprinter Lochsong lacks a little of the raw speed that her mother possessed but showed plenty of guts to break her duck in this seven-furlong contest.
Dwyer struck next when 16 to 1 shot Woodbury took the fillies' handicap for Mark Usher. And he was on the mark again for Balding when Clipperton (2 to 1) took the classified stakes by a 1¼ lengths from Tobago Fizz.
Litewska led home a one-two for the Richard Hannon stable in the opening EBF Weyhill Maiden. The 6 to 4 favourite had clearly benefited from her debut outing at Bath last month and always to the fore under Richard Hughes, cosily held stablemate Man Eater by a length.
Hannon jnr confirmed that the stable will be represented in Sunday's Budweiser Irish Derby by Nysaean. "We could do with some rain, but he will definitely be going over," he said.
•Aramram, third in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, may be supplemented this Saturday for the Coral Eurobet Eclipse Stakes at a cost of £20,000. Trainer Mick Channon and owner Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum are likely to decide tomorrow whether to put the Danzig colt in the £325,000 Group One feature at Sandown on Saturday week. Epsom Derby runner-up Hawk Wing, trained by Aidan O'Brien, is a clear favourite at 4 to 5 (from evens) with the sponsor.
•Last season's champion juvenile filly Queen's Logic, who was forced to miss the Sagitta 1,000 Guineas because of a hoof infection and a bout of coughing ruled her out of both the Entenmann's Irish 1,000 Guineas and last week's Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, is among 38 entries for the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket next month.
Trainer Mick Channon is also considering running Queen's Logic in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood where she could face the Aidan O'Brien-trained Rock Of Gibraltar.
