'That was a bit of a surprise' - 33-1 winner shocks trainer and punters

Who'd be a form student? Races like the second division of the two-year-old novice event make it feel as though you might as well give it up and rely on a lucky pin instead.

The first three home were all outsiders and it was no wonder: they had faced 33 rivals in four previous races between them and beaten a combined total of just one horse.

Yet they dominated the finish here, with the Grant Tuer-trained Romantic Thought landing the prize at 33-1, a length ahead of 100-1 shot Animist, with a neck further back to Thin Lizzy, who was a positive hotpot at 20-1 by comparison. Any clairvoyant putting £1 on a correct straight forecast earned £1,716.10.

The winner was the only of the trio to have avoided finishing last previously, having been sixth of seven on his debut at Hamilton in June, and he had been gelded since being tailed off at Carlisle a week later.

His transformation was another feather in the cap of Tuer, whose 46 winners in 2021 is 25 more than his best previous tally.

But the trainer admitted: "That was a little bit of a surprise. He came back from Carlisle and wasn't moving right, so we put him in the field for eight or ten weeks.

"He galloped okay last week but not enough to suggest he was going to win today. But he won well enough in the end."

Tuer thinks well of Award Dancer, who won at Newcastle on Monday night, and has another exciting recruit to look forward to for next season after the purchase of Dirtyoldtown from George Boughey at the Newmarket sales for 100,000gns earlier that day.

"The man I bought him for wanted a Saturday horse and I persuaded him that the best route would probably be to go for a young, unexposed horse and I hope it turns into what we want it to be," the trainer said.

Star turn

Bryan Smart was in good heart after scoring a second win on successive days when Zoom Star returned from a two-month break to land the 5f handicap.

"That's 22 winners and we've beaten last season by three with fewer horses," the trainer said.

"And we've got some nice horses to look forward to for next year - there's Project Dante, Bond Chairman has been gelded and we've got some nice yearlings."

Soft-ground is reckoned to be the key to Zoom Star and Smart said: "She quickened well on it. She's an improver, she hadn't run for a little while as I let her develop a bit more, and she got a bit light on us after her last run."

Bryan Smart: 'That's 22 winners and we've beaten last season by three with fewer horses'Credit: David Carr

Hot Shot

Dark Shot, backed into 11-2 (from 8-1), completed a 13-day hat-trick in the 6f handicap and could bid to make it four wins in a fortnight at Nottingham on Wednesday.

Kieran O'Neill, also successful on Legal Reform in the 7f handicap, rode the winner for Scott Dixon, whose assistant Gavin Blake said: "Kieran rode him well. We've worked out how to ride him – he's a big, strong lad who likes to be in front and once he's there he keeps finding."

Replays, results & analysis

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