White Hart Lady ends 318-day winner wait for Lorcan Murtagh

Tuesday: Lingfield

On a sodden afternoon White Hart Lady prevailed under Lorcan Murtagh in a dramatic contest, in which only four of the eight runners made it home, to end the jockey’s 318-day wait for a winner.

The scrappy conditions suited the Harry Fry-trained mare as she sought to build on an encouraging second-placed reappearance effort at Worcester.

She tracked the leaders despite struggling for fluency in the early stages, crucially avoided the melee caused by the loose faller Lightning Gold and stayed on stoutly to score by 18 lengths from The Real Jet.

“There was quite a lot of drama,” said Fry. “We were fortunate Lorcan was able to avoid most of it. In the end it was quite a wide margin on rain-softened ground but I’m just delighted for Lorcan to get his first winner back.

"It’s been a long year for him, he had a very bad injury and I’m just thrilled for him to be back riding and getting winners.”

He added: “White Hart Lady now qualifies for the Hereford chase final in December, so all being well that’s where she’ll go.”

In his Prime

Optimise Prime, pulled up on his last two starts and absent from the winner’s enclosure since 2020, notched a smart victory in the day’s feature 2m3½f handicap hurdle for the red-hot Ben Pauling.

Escape gets away

Endless Escape delivered a power-packed debut success on her first attempt for Ben Clarke in the 2m novice hurdle. The six-year-old ultimately overwhelmed the field, leaving her competitors fighting out the places as she charged up by seven lengths in the hands of Ben Jones.

Results, replays and analysis

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