Jockey steers 80/1 shot to victory at Newbury

Lewis Edmunds and Kieran Shoemark both had good days in the saddle at Newbury on Thursday as the duo secured doubles on the card at the track’s latest meeting.

Both of them went back to back in the middle races of the evening as the Flat season continued apace at Newbury in midweek.

Read below for a full report from the track courtesy of Sporting Life.

The favourite ensured the market was correct in the opening race of the afternoon (4.15) at Newbury, with the Karl Burke-trained Blue To Blue delivering the goods at odds of 5/2, winning by two lengths from Land Of Liberty in Second and Assaranca in third.

Shoemark got his first win of the day in race two (4.48) and it was a bit of a stunner as well as the jockey piloted huge 80/1 outsider Into The Sky to victory in the six furlong maiden stakes.

Trained by Jim Boyle, Shoemark had the two-year-old at the front all the way and held on quite readily to score by a mightily impressive seven and a half lengths from Dark Shore in second, while odds-on favourite Leone Alato was a distant fourth for the Charlie Appleby yard.

Shoemark secured his second win on the day on another big priced winner in race three (5.20) when steering 11/1 chance chicory to victory in the six furlong maiden fillies’ stakes for trainer Ed Walker, seeing off 9/4 favourite Tarot by a neck.

Eleven runners went to post for race four (5.55) and Imperial Ballet, ridden by Oisin Murphy, got the job done for the Andrew Balding yard, a 5/1 winner by three and a half lengths from Khafar in second, while favourite Glow (7/2) was back in fourth for trainer Richard Hannon.

Jockey Edmunds got his first win on the day when he led Herculeus to victory in the mile handicap in class four (6.25), a two-length winner from 4/1 favourite War Fowl in second and 9/2 chance Sunny Corner completed the top three, before the jockey picked up his second win on the card on board 14/1 chance Marte Point in the seven furlong handicap (7.00), beating another favourite into second, this time Golden Redemption (2/1) for trainer Balding.

Finally, the card came to a close at 7.30 as a field of nine went to post for the mile and a quarter handicap in class four (7.30) and this one when the way of trainer Alan King and jockey Rossa Ryan, who teamed up on 9/1 shot King Al and was a short-head winner from Sir William in second. Star Of Dubai ran very well at big odds of 33/1 to round out the top three.