Double Rush Heads One-two For Charlie Hills At HQ

Double Rush led home one-two for fitness instructor Charlie Hills in the curtain-raising bet365 Handicap on Craven Stakes day at Newmarket.


A winner on the all-weather at Wolverhampton bit over a fortnight earlier, Double Rush was a 9-4 favourite to follow up on his handicap launching in the hands of Jason Watson and got the much better of stablemate Bob Mali by a length and a quarter.


Hills said of the winner: "He won his amateur extremely well in a great time at Wolverhampton and I believe he's going to be a nice, enhancing three-year-old through the season.


"Some of our horses weren't right last season, so he had a good mark actually. He probably didn't deal with the track that well today and a flatter track will fit him better.


"There's a valuable handicap at York a week or so before Royal Ascot and we might intend him for that, but we'll see how he enhances and take it step by step."


John and Thady Gosden quickly followed up their win in the function Craven Stakes by saddling Swiss Lightning (2-1 preferred) to take the Rossdales Maiden Fillies' Stakes in identified fashion.


Double Rush winning the opening race at Newmarket on Wednesday (Mike Egerton/PA)


Making simply her second start, the Lordship Stud stud-owned child of Night Of Thunder revealed a tremendous mindset to come out on top in a thrilling three-way finish.


"We gave her an experience of the racecourse at the end of in 2015, however it was heavy ground and she didn't like it, she was a bit weak and the jockey cared for her and she has done well today as it wasn't the strategy and there was no speed, it was a messy race - she looked a bit chewy early on but settled into it.


"That was over seven and it extremely much felt like we ought to remain at seven and don't return to 6 and not increase to a mile, so we'll have a great appearance. I wouldn't want to hurry her back from that as she's had a tough enough race, but you have got to more than happy with her.


"She showed an excellent attitude because she hit the front, then wasn't sure what she was meant to be doing, however she didn't quit. Ryan (Moore, on Richard Hannon's runner-up Stellenbosch) had the rail which's a big advantage with these inexperienced fillies."


Stallion Ten Sovereigns had the one-two in the Live Racing At bet365 Handicap as Harry Charlton's Ten Pounds (5-1) saw off Tom Clover's 5-4 preferred Fifty Nifty in the hands of Trevor Whelan.