'He's not out of practice!' - Oisin Murphy lands Championships day treble

It was as though he had never been away. Oisin Murphy enjoyed the best afternoon of his comeback as he rode a treble on All-Weather Championship Finals day.

Successes on Desert Cop, Notre Belle Bete and Berkshire Shadow, in races worth £500,000 in total, came just seven weeks after the former champion jockey's return from a 14-month ban for alcohol and Covid breaches.

All three winners were for Andrew Balding, whose wife Anna Lisa said: "Oisin is riding pretty well, isn't he? He's not out of practice!

"It's fantastic to have him back on the team and riding so well, he just seems to get a little bit extra out of them."

Murphy was keen to share the credit, and said: "I came here with lots of nice rides and it's brilliant the horses performed.

"We have a lot of horses at Andrew Balding's and there's a lot of hard work – I just ride them. I know jockeys say that sometimes, but when you think of the overall involvement so much goes on behind the scenes."

Easter Classic winner Notre Belle Bete had been beaten in the Lincoln Trial last month, but his jockey said: "He was a little bit unlucky at Wolverhampton where I had an inside run and I got stopped at the bottom of the straight. Stepping up to ten furlongs suited him and he was a dream to ride." 

The 2021 Coventry Stakes winner Berkshire Shadow scored his second win since being gelded in the Mile, while Desert Cop took the Three-Year-Old Championship.

Dreaming of Epsom

Middleham Park Racing could have "a dream come true" with a first Derby runner in Dear My Friend, who repaid some costly entry fees with a battling success in the Listed Talksport Burradon Stakes.

He was put in the Epsom Classic (at the second entry stage) and the Dante Stakes last Tuesday by a syndicate group which enjoyed its best ever season in 27 years of operation with 125 winners in 2022. And that £9,600 outlay was more than recouped as the three-year-old recovered well from being hampered at the start to land this £100,000 mile Listed contest by a neck under James Doyle, earning a quote of 40-1 (from 100-1) for the Derby from Paddy Power.

Dear My Friend (right) stakes his Derby claim with victory in the Burradon StakesCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

"He'll certainly go for a Derby trial and the plan is to go to Epsom," said a delighted Mike Prince of Middleham Park Racing. "He was always a bit keen as a two-year-old but he enjoyed the cover there. We always thought he'd need further and his stamina came into play in that last furlong, he's got a lovely long stride on him.

"We've never had a runner in the Derby so it would be a first for us. It would be a dream come true, although we need to take the next step first. We had a stellar season last year, probably our best ever and we wondered how we were going to top that, but we've started well!"

Trainer Charlie Johnston admitted that Epsom was Middleham Park's brainwave, and said: "I phoned Mike to say we're putting him in the Dante and he said 'let me have a think about the Derby and phone you back' – fair play to him, it was solely his idea.

"A lot went wrong, he got flattened at the start and he was quite far back. He had to make up a lot of ground through the middle of the race and I thought that big effort was going to tell in the last 150 yards, but he knuckled down and went again."

Dream result

Rainbow Dreamer made it fourth time lucky in the All-Weather Marathon to give Hollie Doyle her biggest win since returning from a broken elbow.

The ten-year-old had been favourite for this on the back of four straight wins in 2020 only for the Covid lockdown to intervene, and finished fourth and then fifth in the last two years. 

Following the Alan King-trained stayer's come-from-behind length win, Doyle said: "I got a bit of a buzz off that, he's an old legend. He's ten years old and I've been riding him since I was an apprentice.

"Unfortunately I missed him this winter because I was away so it was really good of Alan and the owners to put me back on him today. I was out for a while, but to have horses like this waiting for me when I come back, I'm in a privileged position."

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