The public returned – in very limited numbers – to Towcester on Tuesday night but what a night it turned out to be.

With the sun beating over the new circuit, the sparks started to fly as early as the trial session when the 2019 (retired) Irish Derby winner Lenson Bocko produced a stunning 29.48 solo trial on his first look at the circuit.

LENSON BOCKO flies to a 29.48 in a solo, fastest of the pre-meeting trials session. Photo: © Steve Nash

It proved a terrific first half an hour for Graham Holland who then sent out the winner of the first race of the night, Native Maestro, who also seemed to develop an instant love of the place – winning time: 29.36.

Before the final of the big race, John and David Mullins, and Mark Wallis, had all landed doubles. David’s second winner, Shrewd Call equalled the sprint clock in the process.

And then the big one:

 

The meeting concluded with a track record for the dog who many saw as Thorn Falcon’s original main rival, Warzone Tom.

The big blue clocked a flying 4.14 sectional on the way to a 29.08 run, three spots inside the previous best held by Priceless Jet.

Assistant trainer Rab McNair said: “He has only proved to me how good he really is. I changed his training regime this week. He is a bit manic and I hadn’t previously done a lot with him between races.

“But I had a chat with Brendan (Keogh) and decided to give him a bit of work. He put on a bit of muscle and also it calmed him down a bit. That seemed to really bring him on and I was delighted with the run.

“I am thinking of changing his seed to ‘middle’ but am trying to work out which journalist’s permission I need to change it. Thankfully, Paul Hennessy didn’t get any stick for changing a dog from rails to wide and him breaking the track record. And that’s no disrespect to Paul who is an outstanding dog man. There just seem to be rules for one, and different rules for another.”

The McNairs also picked up a double, courtesy of King Louis. Queen Beyonce ran a creditable fourth in her return from apparent retirement.

Rab added: “She ran exactly as I expected. She missed her break from the new traps, showed great pace to contest the race and then blew up. But she is bouncing this morning. There is no sign of the injury or any dehydration and we’ll be back next week.”

WARZONE TOM (t4) leads into the first bend on his way to a 29.08 TRACK RECORD in the maiden 500 closing out Tuesday’s Maiden Derby gala meeting. Photo: © Steve Nash