By John Walsh

Published at 11:06, Thursday, 02 August 2012

TWO kennels celebrated doubles at Ambleside Sports on Thursday when hound training provided its usual spectacle.

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The Bland/Barrow kennel enjoyed two victories as did Christine Brownlee with only the senior maidens eluding them.

Huntsman’s Dazzler started off proceedings with an easy senior win. It was especially good to see Jacob McClink finishing in second place. He picked up a nasty injury earlier in the season, but has made a remarkable recovery, and he finished well clear of Matador, who collected third place.

Dazzler’s daughter and kennel-mate Jenny’s Rascal brought her total to 12 in the puppy trail with an easy win over Canny Girl and Believe to complete a double for the Bland and Barrow partnership.

The senior maiden trail saw a great finish. Carole Jackson and partners’ Courtesy coming away in the final stages to draw ten lengths clear of Waltzing Matilda, with the consistent Davina a good third.

The last two trails were both won by Christine Brownlee’s hounds. The puppy maiden finish was desperately close. Mayhem was just a neck in front of Lady Dot and Cherish, while the open restricted, with the biggest field of the day (23) went to Momentum, who beat Thorn Girl and Cancellara.

We start our look back at the rest of the week’s trailing with last Tuesday’s meeting at Sandale when table leader Dairy Diamond was made a strong favourite for the opening senior trail.

In the end, she had to work very hard for her latest success. She was well adrift at one stage but then worked her way back into contention before settle down for a battle royal with Quiet Swallow which she just won by a neck. Artisan finished third.

There was another thrill in the puppy trail as Endeavour and table leader Chicharito were the two involved in a gruelling scrap on the finish.

It was tight but Endeavour proved to be well-named, getting the verdict by a length with Get Up in third.

There were 14 in the final trail for open restricted and it produced the easiest win of the night as Mika led from start to finish and was about 40 metres clear of Quiet swift at the line.

At Cold Fell on Wednesday, Fallen Spring and Silver Moon went into the dip together but when they came out on the ruin to the line there was daylight between them. Fallen Spring went on to win by a couple of lengths.

Acacia is one of the most improved pups in training and continued her good run by taking the junior trail. She led practically all the way and had three lengths on Capetown at the line. Valiant finished third.

Calypso is proving to be the odd-ball of the year in that Cold Fell is the only place that seems to bring the best out of Vanessa Simpson’s charge. Prepared to blaze the trail and see it through, that was the case again for the Festival winner, and runner-up Sensation was a couple of lengths adrift at the line following the open maidens trail.

The open restricted was an open affair with three or four hounds in with chances on the run to the line but it was Romulus who did enough to beat Zeddicus with What Look in third.

There were two meetings on Saturday at Nook Farm (St Helena) and also at Lorton Show with plenty of races at both.

St Helena had got things started and in the seniors Brad, who had cut out a lot of the work, kept going well to beat Fallen Spring by two lengths with Hunter’s Rose close-up in third.

Baroness looked nailed-on to justify favouritism in the pups but she made a pig’s ear of the later stages and in the end could only finish fifth.

In a good battle for the honours Valiant just edged out Wistlo Spring by a length with Discard close behind in third.

Divot proved to be the answer to the open maidens, just doing enough to beat Alana and Take a Look while Sensation, favourite for the veterans, was well clear at the line, with Loch Lomond and Miss Molly following in.

At Lorton the five card meeting was launched by the seniors and Hello Dolly notched her tenth victory of the season.

Last year’s puppy champion came on the finish in third but then showed well-judged turn of pace to go past Westgate Gypsy and Mayflower to win cosily by a dozen yards.

The maidens proved to be a good contest with half a dozen in with a chance as they reached the business end of the trail.

Jack’s Lad, who had done much of the donkey work through the trail, was done for pace on the run to the line as Jenny’s Supreme came through strongly to win. Davina got through late to take third.

In the pups, there were reports back to the field that the favourite Jenny’s Rascal had opened up a 50 yard lead.

But she was nowhere to be seen when they came into view, although it was the Bland and Barrow’s other hound Huntsman’s Hero (trained in West Cumbria by Stephen and Lesley Miles) who stormed home past leader Chicharito to win by a couple of yards with Quiet Linnet in third.

Jimmy Brown produced a great late run to beat long-time leader Lingbeck Orion in the puppy maidens with Howgill Benella taking third.

The open restricted brought events to a close and Newtown Ghost proved to be the Answer for punters, beating Tinker and Nightshadow.

Helton received plenty of support for the five-trail meeting on Sunday. Senior table leader Dairy Diamond showed on the long finish with a narrow lead, and she came away up the hill to record her 16th win by 10 lengths, beating Artisan and Silver Moon.

Cracking Performer led the senior maidens on the finish, but as so often happens he lost his concentration and turned round, allowing Sparrowmire Judy and Our Vic to overtake him. He is a hound with great ability, and it is disappointing for his connections that he just can’t maintain this over the final yards.

A very good puppy field was led in by Acacia, bringing her total to 13. She had five lengths to spare over Capetown, with Endeavour in third.

The first three puppy maidens were very close, Cherish just a head in front of the improving Jimmy Brown, with Black Rose third.

Hey Jude ended her career in the lower grades in good style, taking the open restricted trail from Enoch and What Look.

The winners all received Olympic medals, which were much appreciated.

On Monday at Nook Farm (St Helena), won nicely after a good front-running display and had three to four lengths in hand of Night Spirit at the mine with Celtic Spirit in third.

Only six pups were slipped and Valiant had the measure of Serenity on the run to the line with Is He It in third.

There was a rare dead heat in the puppy maidens. Wistlo Spring had got a good lead at one point but that was whittled away by the fast finishing Ling Fell and they went over the line together and couldn’t be separated by the camera. Free Spirit was a close-up third.

There was a nice, comfortable winner of the veterans trail in Sensation who had half the length of the field to spare over runner-up Miss Molly. She had come from third place to beat Loch Lomond.

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