'I'd have snapped your hand off' - Gressington delivers on debut to continue Ed Bethell's remarkable run

Ed Bethell: enjoying a fine run of formCredit: Edward Whitaker

Ed Bethell's brilliant run of form continued when Gressington made an impressive winning debut in the second division of the 7f novice.

The son of Outstrip hit the front a furlong out and stayed on to win by a length and three-quarters, the fourth winner in a row for the Yorkshire trainer.

"It [the winning run] was definitely not by design, but the horses have been running well all year and I've had a great team behind me," he said. "He was green in the preliminaries and he will improve a bundle.

"It was a nice debut he can improve from and I feel there were some smart types in the race, so hopefully the form has a bit of substance to it."

Gressington's win also took Bethell's strike-rate to 25 per cent this year, with the stable having saddled 38 winners.

He added: “If you’d told me at the start of the year that we’d be where we are, I’d have snapped your hand off. We’ll continue going right until the end of the year to see where we can go.”

Sad deaths

Mick Appleby lost two horses in the space of ten minutes, including Motawaafeq in the mile handicap won by Bushfire.

The Appleby-trained Boarhunt also suffered a fatal injury in the 7f apprentice jockeys' handicap at Lingfield, which was won by 100-1 shot Hold The Press.

From his X (formerly Twitter) account, Appleby said: "It is with heavy heart that we lost Boarhunt and Motawaafeq. Such sad news and we are devastated, we're so sorry for their connections."

Appleby had a small measure of consolation when Tyke took the concluding 6f handicap.

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