'This was the day to win' - Soi Dao breaks maiden with feature success

Sunday: Chepstow

Soi Dao broke her maiden in emphatic fashion as she led home a 1-2 for trainer Rod Millman in the Class 2 6f handicap.

The three-year-old filly had finished in the first five in 11 starts this year but finally landed her first win in the card's feature, which had been relocated from Bath due to the dry summer.

Soi Dao's breakthrough success ahead of stablemate and favourite Handytalk was credited by Millman to jockey Gina Mangan, who was having her first ride for the Devon-based trainer.

"The filly was given a really good ride by Gina," Millman said. "I was very impressed with her. She did exactly what we needed.

"We bought Soi Dao as a sharp two-year-old with a lovely pedigree and she never actually ran for the whole year. She was out in the paddock as a yearling and unfortunately got a kick on her shin. She had a splinter and then a virus, so it's taken time.

"She's been knocking on the door all year, but we were aiming for this race for both our runners and this was the day to win."

More maiden magic

Another to break a string of near misses was Betweenthesticks, who landed the 5f maiden at the 11th time of asking under George Bass.

The Mick Channon-trained two-year-old, in the frame in seven of his previous ten starts, scored by a comfortable two and a quarter lengths.

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