Alice Haynes primed for new season as juvenile Maximum Impact defies tricky conditions

Heavy ground and a lack of stalls would be a formidable challenge for most juvenile debutants, but Maximum Impact showed a touch of class to storm to success for Alice Haynes. 

The Amo Racing colt completed a double for Kevin Stott in the 5f novice stakes, after earlier winning on Maxident for Dominic Ffrench Davis, despite a lack of stalls on the straight track due to the testing conditions at Leicester. 

However, the son of Havana Grey took to the heavy going and swept to a 12-length success to provide Haynes with her first two-year-old winner this year on the first try. 

"I'm chuffed with him," she said. "Obviously, he can handle the ground well and he was very professional in the preliminaries, which surprised me, especially when there's no stalls for his very first time at the races. 

"I told Kevin to get the rail and he didn't jump off anywhere near it, but he picked up well and was very straightforward."

Haynes had 50 winners last year and hopes to build on her flying start to the training ranks with another strong team this campaign. 

"Maximum Impact was the first runner of our two-year-olds and it's a good gauge for the rest of them," she added. "Last year was amazing, but we're ready to try and build on it. We have a lot of nice horses turning three and some fresh blood too, so it's very exciting."

 Time for victory

The 6f claiming stakes provided another wide-margin winner when Angel Time defied 50-1 odds to win by 17 lengths under Ray Dawson.

The filly picked up her first win in seven starts for Robyn Brisland after finishing last of 12 in her previous race last month. 

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