Simms leaves it late to land Clock Tower Cup for boss Burke

The Betfair Clock Tower Cup, the climax of Racing Welfare's stable staff week, took place on Town Moor just over half an hour before the first race and provided plenty of drama, as Mark Simms on the Karl Burke-trained Baron Run pipped Jessie O'Kane on Buccaneers Vault in the dying strides.

The event gives an opportunity for stable staff to compete in a race. Asked if race-riding had been the dream, Simms, a head lad at Burke's yard, responded: "More when I was younger. I was actually offered to do this race last year, but there was a lass in the yard who really wanted to do it, so I stepped aside."

A busy paddock before the Clock Tower Cup at Doncaster, 7/7/2017Credit: Keith Melrose

He added: "I was nervous about it all day. It was only on the way down to the start that I started to get into it and got into the zone from there."