THE 1100-metre opening event provided an opportunity for trainer Gregory Forsyth to enhance his reputation as one of the shrewdest operatives in the claiming system. Having claimed Mr Lyndhurst just over two months ago, he presented the eight-year-old gelding in pristine condition to justify odds of 4/5 and give joint champion and leading reinsman Anthony Thomas his first of three winners on the day. This was Forsyth’s 13th win from 49 starts.

Not to be outdone, veteran conditioner Johnny Wilmot, who has a reputation similar to that of Forsyth, posted Mirabilis (Dick Cardenas), the 3/5 favourite, in unbeatable physical condition to win the 1600-metre second race by 12 1/2 lengths, justifying the horse’s odds-on status most convincingly. This was Wilmot’s 15th win from 57 starts.

The 1200-metre third event was won in good style by 5/1 shot Yet Again (Matthew Bennett) to reward the patience of trainer Patrick Lynch who had claimed the five-year-old horse at the end of November 2020. Therefore, he waited eight months for the former Anthony Nunes inmate to be ready to score.

In race four over 600 metres straight, the fourth winning favourite of the afternoon emerged in the form of Samora at 4/5 ridden by veteran Devon A Thomas for owner-trainer Anthony Subratie.

The form players’ enjoyment of winning favourites came to an abrupt end in the 1400-metre fifth event when trainer Dennis Pryce’s Lalala Bamba, well ridden by leading apprentice Youville Pinnock, prevailed by half-length over his nearest rival at odds of 23/1 for the five-year-old gelded progeny of Soul Warrior to register three wins from the last four starts.

Predictably, the 1600-metre sixth event was won by the Jason DaCosta-trained and progressive 4/5 favourite Fearless Champion to give Anthony Thomas his second winning mount.

The 1600-metre seventh run over a similar distance to the sixth went decisively to 7/2 choice Double Crown, conditioned by Ian Parsard, to secure Thomas’s third on the day and 68th of the season in delivering a six-length romp.

Following the running of the 1000-metre straight eighth it was time for DaCosta to enjoy his second visit to the winners’ enclosure for yet another photo op as female apprentice Abigail Able rode his lightly raced filly Heart of the Sea to a winning margin of three parts of a length at odds of 1/5. Speaking of second visits, the ninth and feature 1820-metre Legal Light Trophy was won by Crimson (Robert Halledeen) at 5/2 for Gary Subratie while in the 800-metre straight 10th it was Anthony Nunes’ turn to win as Dick Cardenas completed a double in riding second-time starter Vanessa.

It seemed as if it occurred on cue when, up to the fifth event in which they were winless, it was then time for the second-generation dominance to resume. For the benefit of first-time or irregular readers, this column has been keeping tabs on the 2021 performances of the cohort of second-generation trainers practising, with in excess of 100 other stables operational.

These sons, namely Anthony Nunes, Gary Subratie, Jason DaCosta, Ian Parsard, Steven Todd, Ryan Darby, siblings Robert and Christopher Pearson, Michael Marlowe, Gresford Smith, Wayne Parchment, Errol Waugh and Henry Harrison Jr have now tallied 213 wins from 470 races run in the 2021 season.

The Training Feat Award is presented to Patrick Lynch for the performance of Yet Again after an eight-month hiatus. The Best Winning Gallop was displayed by Crimson in winning the featured Legal Light Trophy by the narrowest official margin of a nose. Robert Halledeen is most deserving of the Jockeyship Award for the tactical enterprise he deployed to get the usually late-running five-year-old gelding to lead 500 metres from the finish.