£1M PRIZE IS UP FOR GRABS

Ian Heitman counts down to the seventh All-Weather finals day at Lingfield on Good Friday

The countdown to the 2020 Cheltenham Festival is well underway with National Hunt racing’s most important meeting now only a matter of weeks down the road. For Flat racing fans, that means there will be 15 days after the end of the Festival before turf Flat racing returns at Doncaster with a two-day meeting. Less than a fortnight after the turf season begins, the seventh All-Weather Championships are brought to a conclusion with Finals Day at Lingfield Park on April 10, with £1 million worth of prize money on offer.

Seven races will take place at Lingfield, with six championship races, each of which has had four Fast Track Qualifiers since the opening day of the season on October 22. Over half of the qualifiers have now taken place but there are still plenty of opportunities for connections to grab a guaranteed place on Finals Day.

THREE-YEAR-OLD

Two of the four qualifiers have been run, Temple Of Heaven winning the first and Maystar taking the second. The third will have taken place at Kempton by the time this is published.

Archie Watson didn’t give Maystar too much of a break following his win at Wolverhampton on December 7 as he was sent to race in Qatar on December 20 for a 7f conditions race for two-year-olds. Racing over 7f for the first time, Maystar was always close to the pace and took the lead over a furlong from the finish, holding off the challenge of Think Big, who had some decent form this name from earlier in the season, by three quarters of length. Hamish Macbeth fared best of the three other British trained runners, finishing fifth, running on from the rear but never challenging.

Maystar provided Hollie Doyle with four of her 119 wins in her record-breaking year in 2019 and the win in Qatar was her most valuable, worth nearly £45,000.