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George Baker celebrates Brighton double

3 minute read

With potential trips to Germany and Ireland lined up at the weekend for his stable stars Belgian Bill and Boomshackerlacker, trainer George Baker was on target closer to home after landing a double at Brighton on Monday.

Belgian Bill
Belgian Bill Picture: Dubai Racing Club

Having saddled a brace of winners at Les Landes in Jersey earlier this month, the Manton handler repeated that feat with a quickfire double at the Sussex seaside venue initiated by the victory of Drop Kick Murphi (9-2) in the LCS Roofing & Cladding Ltd Nursery Handicap.

Baker said: "He is just a lovely uncomplicated two-year-old. You could set your clock by him. As the owner said, he is a dude of a horse.

"It wasn't a bad run I thought at Nottingham last time out, as I think there will be plenty that come out of it. I thought it was a decent race.

"I went through this race last night and came up with seven different winners. When you have a two-year-old as uncomplicated as he is you can keep going to war with them.

"There is a race at Lingfield on the 30th for him and that will be the obvious target for him.

On Boomshackerlacker and Belgian Bill, he added: "Boomshackerlacker and Belgian Bill are in a Group Three in Dusseldorf while Boomshackerlacker is also in the Irish Cambridgeshire at the Curragh this weekend."

The participation of Magnificent Madiba in a claimer at Lingfield on Wednesday now looks unlikely after the 5-1 chance got his career back on track with a first success in the Call Star Sports On 08000 521 321 Amateur Riders' Handicap.

Baker said: "Today really was the cliche of the last-chance saloon. He works like a half decent horse he has just let us down every single time he has gone racing.

"We thought enough of him today to ask Simon Walker to come along as he is the best in the country.

"The horse will have learned plenty. He is a proper horse, I just think he is raw and immature - like the trainer. One day he might grow up - unlike the trainer.

"He is in a claimer at Lingfield on Wednesday, but he won't go there."

Adam Kirby was greeted with a rendition of 'happy birthday' by racegoers around the winner's enclosure after Testimonio made a winning debut in the starsportsbet.co.uk Maiden Stakes.

The Group One-winning rider, who was celebrating his 28th birthday, partnered the Luca Cumani-trained 2-1 shot to a length-and-a-quarter success over odds-on favourite Golden Reign, a half-sister to last year's Derby and Arc hero Golden Horn, who was tasting defeat for the fifth time.

Kirby said: "I've been around a while and feel more like 48 than 28, but it was nice to come back to something like that. They are a good little crowd and they were happy.

"He (Testimonio) is a very laid-back horse and he will be OK in time. He travelled well and he lengthened all the way to the line. Hopefully he will improve."

Multiple all-weather scorer Multitask (6-4), from the yard of Gary Moore, completed Kirby's brace half an hour later when backing up a win at Wolverhampton last month to gain a first success on turf in the Follow Us On Twitter At starsports_bet Handicap.

While the days of Wahaab competing at Pattern-race level may be over the Richard Hughes-trained five-year-old, who finished seventh in the 2013 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, showed he is more than capable of winning in the right grade when taking the Ian Carnaby Selling Handicap.

Hughes said of his 11-4 favourite: "He is very well bred and it isn't a great training feat winning a Brighton seller. If we can win with him we can win with anything."

Pat Cosgrave enjoyed a first- and last-race double after steering the David Simcock-trained newcomer Mystic Dawn (7-2) to success in opening the ABF The Soldiers' Charity Maiden Fillies' Stakes and capturing the concluding starspreads.com Handicap on With Approval (14-1) from the yard of Laura Mongan.


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