Followers of King Charlie were left licking their wounds after an uncharacteristically poor night for the great man at Doncaster on Wednesday.
In the last five years, Charlie Lister OBE has sent out three times more open race winners at the Stainforth circuit than any other trainer and punters expected that trend to continue when making his first runner on the night, Stay Lucky (Ninja Jamie-Smelled A Rat, Nov 13) , a 2-5f chance. Despite finding all the trouble it was possible to find within 483m, the black in black looked to have the race at his mercy off the last bend. But a determined effort by striped Millcroft Star (Droopys Scolari-Little Flame, Jun 14) resulted in the locally trained runner forcing the result to a dead heat in 29.93.
Given the presence of the classy Master Lego (Scolari Me Daddy-Go To Mammy, Jun 13) in the sprint, punters wisely decided to swerve Charlie’s Coolavanny Grace (3-1). Colin Handford’s 4-6 favourite duly extended his impressive run to seven wins from nine races with a 16.89 fastest-of-year, five length victory.
Charlie’s next runner Blakes Turbo was surprisingly short (4-7f) for a dog who had been beaten in his last twelve races. But he would have no answer to Joohn Drake’s Holycross Model (Shaneboy Lee-Good Sarah, Jun 14). The prolific local runner returned at 7-2 when beating the favourite by nearly five lengths in a new personal best of 27.59 for the 450 metres.
The last option for Lister followers was the hat-trick seeking Stay Loose who went to the red box in the last 483m open at 4-9f. All looked good in the early stages – before this happened . . .
A fine win for Robert Holt’s 3-1 shot Trickyjoefriday (Droopys Kewell-Good Lucy, Aug 13) who got home by a merited length and three quarters in 29.62.
