Dubai Hills rules the Fibresand

DUBA I HILLS continued his reign as the king of the Fibresand with victory in the feature event on Southwell’s most valuable fixture of the year.

The Ladbrokes Handicap, a seven-furlong affair worth £ 11,972 to the winner, provided a seventh victory from only eight starts at the Nottinghamshire course for Bryan Smart’s seven-year-old.

Sent off the 11-4 favourite under Graham Lee, Dubai Hills was produced for a strong effort over the last couple of furlongs and eventually wore down Frontier Fighter by a neck, with the pair five lengths clear of the rest.

Thirsk- based Smart has been touched by the response of all-weather followers to the gelding.

“He’s an amazing horse,” said Smart. “We’ve had some lovely tweets and messages about him. Someone said that they should put up a statue of him at Southwell!

“I’ve no idea why he likes it there, but he’s just a different horse round there and, if they keep putting on races there, we’ll keep coming.

“There’s a race at Wolverhampton for him, I don’t think he’ll go there but I think there’s another one over seven for him at Southwell coming up, then there’s a final at Southwell.”

Seven is some way short of the 13 Southwell wins achieved by La Estrella, but Smart said: “Most of La Estrella’s wins were in claimers and sellers. This horse has been winning handicaps, so it’s a totally different thing.

“He’s got a real following at the course now, they like to see him.

“He’s become a bit of a Southwell legend.”