Ex-Romford A1 runner Eskes Diamond Ballymac Eske-Affection, Mar 15) made it four wins from six races in her most recent outing at HENLOW on Sunday.
Jason Bloomfield’s fawn, already fastest of the year over the standard with a 27.17 (+20) run, made her even money SP look like a gimme with a 27.36 (+10) six length victory.
Roswell Romanov (Quail Hollow-Kranky Leona, Aug 14) used a 550 metre open as a ‘ticking over’ exercise prior to the Coral Champion Stakes and came away with a 33.07 (+15) victory. It was his seventh consecutive victory and his tenth from his last eleven races.
Returning trainer Richard Baker used a number of the opens as qualifiers for some of his Hall Green graders. The most impressive of the lot was Simple As That (Droopys Jet-Enda Causeway, Jul 15) in a 550m open. Off a 8.77 sectional (the same as Roswell Romanov), the Hall Green A2/A3 runner pulled away for an eight length win in 33.18 (+15).
HENLOW OPENS – TO AUGUST 6
Henlow Opens ’17 | Win £ | Av.d | Wins |
Shlowdown Sally | £1,200 | 277 | 8 |
Garryglass Teddy | £1,050 | 550 | 6 |
Woodholdthedoor | £1,000 | 535 | 6 |
Clondoty Alex | £850 | 454 | 5 |
Idle Talker | £750 | 434 | 5 |
Jims Chance | £850 | 460 | 5 |
Black Sea | £600 | 390 | 4 |
Droopys Zone | £700 | 550 | 4 |
Eskes Diamond | £700 | 460 | 4 |
Savana Donie | £700 | 460 | 4 |
Trainer | Racers | Av.dist | Win £ | Wins |
Wallis | 22 | 477 | £10,175 | 49 |
Bloomfield | 11 | 497 | £3,250 | 20 |
Grasso | 4 | 453 | £1,575 | 10 |
Fletcher | 4 | 433 | £1,325 | 8 |
Gaughan | 5 | 570 | £1,200 | 8 |
Lea | 3 | 598 | £1,125 | 7 |
Chalkley | 4 | 414 | £900 | 6 |
Pedder | 1 | 535 | £1,000 | 6 |
Price | 3 | 398 | £900 | 6 |
Gaskin | 4 | 441 | £800 | 5 |
Hutton | 5 | 478 | £825 | 5 |
Johnson | 2 | 550 | £850 | 5 |
Young | 5 | 459 | £775 | 5 |
While there is a temptation to concentrate on the open racers, it was a graded runner who lit up CENTRAL PARK on Sunday night.
Danny Brabon’s Queen Borneo (Leamaneigh Turbo-Shirocco Star, Jan 16) became the first ’16 whelp to break 29.00 with a 28.92 (+10) victory in A3. By way of comparison, the night’s three opens were won in 29.32, 28.99 and 28.88.