Doyle continues winning streak
A speedy clear in a fast jump-off lands Keith Doyle another victory
LAST year, Keith Doyle ended the season with a winning streak across the south-eastern county shows, and he looked set to repeat the trend when he landed his second consecutive area trial victory with Harlequin Dunraven.
Fresh from a win at Edenbridge four days before, the pair looked flawless as they waltzed to a 4.52sec triumph in this £1,000-to-the-winner class.
Phil Ashworth’s track had made good use of the main ring’s many undulations, and just two riders had produced first-round clears — Keith and Olli Fletcher, riding his father Graham’s
Temple Rebus.
Three four-faulters joined the jump-off line up, with Olli also taking through Hello Disckoboy DN, accompanied by consistent county performers Mennell Watson (Whisper In The Wind) and Paul Bevan (Deangelo II).
The experienced partnership of Keith and Darren Hegarty’s
12-year-old liver chestnut had set out with victory in mind, landing the closing jump-off slot in this table A9 format with the fastest first round.
Both Mennell and Paul added additional poles, leaving Olli, who had produced two second-round clears, lying in the top two slots when Keith entered the ring and snatched an adamant victory.
“Olli had been quite tactical and wanted to make me go a bit quicker,” said Keith, who is based in Eversley, Hampshire. “He’d gone quite quickly on [Hello Disckoboy DN], but I thought if I went fast enough and knocked one down I’d still finish second or third.
“Edenbridge kicked off a good run for us last year and we went on to win at Henley and Newbury, so hopefully we’ll now do the same,” he added.
“Harley’s” recent run of form follows a bit of a four-fault streak earlier in the season, and looks like a return-to-best for the striking gelding.
“We’ve been doing a bit more flatwork this time as he had tooth out at the beginning of the year and the balance of his mouth changed a bit,” Keith said.
“Maybe that’s settled down now and that’s why he’s produced the results here — although he did get loose as Darren was getting him ready today and had a good canter round the field, so that might be a new tactic!”
While the back ring classes had been cancelled because of hard ground, Keith added that the main ring had jumped well.
“With those undulations it’s a job to get it right. It looked firm but it wasn’t, so you have to give them credit,” he said.
FEELING FLUSTERED
LAST year’s trial winners Abbe Burchmore-Eames and 15-yearold Wilandri E may have missed out on a double in the main event, but they consoled themselves with an indisputable 5sec win in the accumulator.
“He’s so happy round that height and I think he must like it here!” said Abbe, who is usually based half an hour’s drive from the showground.
“It took us nearly two hours to get here today,” she said. “We arrived with 10 minutes to spare and ended up a bit rushed for the trial. He doesn’t like when things get flustered, so we didn’t have our best round in that this year.”
‘He’s so happy round that height and I think he likes it here!’
ABBE BURCHMORE-EAMES ON WILANDRI E