'The owner loves racing' - dream result for King as gamble pays off with high-class mare in Cammidge

Taking a high stakes gamble paid off for Doug King, whose love of racing landed him the £45,000 Pertemps Network Cammidge Trophy.

A harder-headed owner might have decided to retire Vadream, a five-year-old who was without a win in 11 races since 2021 and whose Group 3 success at three made her a valuable breeding prospect.

But King, who suffered less luck on the football pitch on Saturday when Coventry City – who he also owns – were beaten 4-0 by Stoke City, elected to keep rolling the dice and was rewarded handsomely as his mare bounded up by four and a half lengths in this Listed event.

Fellowes said: "The owner loves racing - a lot of owners would have retired her and got her covered but he's waited a long time to have a mare like this and as long as she's in good heart she'll keep going."

Reflecting on Vadream's losing run, Fellowes said: "She's always been a very talented mare but she's not the most straightforward in the world. She's always improved with racing, which is one thing we learned last year, and that is why we've given her a few runs on the all-weather.

"She loves soft ground and she loves six furlongs. She's always threatened to do something like that. She was frustrating last year, she ran too many times on quick ground - we know her a lot better this year and we'll stick to a bit of cut."

But an immediate switch to Tapeta could be on the cards as Fellowes said: "She's in the all-weather championships on Friday at Newcastle, which is probably the only all-weather track where you could run her and go with a big chance. She's the sort of filly who could run again quickly so we'll look at that.

"Then she'll have a break and have an entry at York and possibly in Ireland. I hope we have a wet summer!" 

Take a Beau

Taking a chance was also rewarded by Astral Beau in the Pertemps Network Doncaster Mile.

The progressive handicapper was a 9-1 outsider on this step up to Listed company but she revelled in the testing ground and came home a four-length winner under Rob Hornby.

Pam Sly: trainer of Astral Beau

Trainer Pam Sly said: "I thought I'll come here and have a go and it's paid off. She's improved from last year and she loves the ground. She progressed well last season and Shane Kelly's been in a couple of times and said 'god, she's improved'. I don't know what we'll do with her now."

When one becomes two 

Roger Fell sent out what may have been one of the last big winners under his own name when Harswell Duke landed the £75,000 Pertemps Network Spring Mile.

Fell is poised to share the licence at his North Yorkshire yard with assistant Sean Murray and said: "It's on call to happen. They've been to see us and fingers crossed if we've ticked all the right boxes we should be okay.

"I'm getting old, I'll be 69 on April 10, and Sean deserves a bit of a chance."

Third time lucky for Amo 

After places in the Brocklesby and the Lincoln, Amo Racing got off the mark on turf in 2023 when Maxi King took the 1m2f maiden under Kevin Stott.

"He's obviously a nice horse," trainer Dominic Ffrench Davis said of the winner. "He'd been working well at home and he loved the ground.

"He was a bit keen early but Kevin said they probably didn't go quick enough but then he settled. It took him half a stride to pick up but then when he did he went and won quite nicely."

Big turnout

The Lincoln day crowd of 8,301 was up around 15 per cent on 2022. It included no fewer than 758 owners.

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