Donald McCain and Jason Maguire treble top at Catterick
Donald McCain and Jason Maguire dominated proceedings at Catterick and left the North Yorkshire track with a treble.
Last Updated: 22/01/14 5:21pm
The Last Samurai got the ball rolling in the opening BHEST Racing To School Novices' Hurdle.
Sent off the 4-9 favourite having won his first two races over timber, Maguire was at work some way out before stamina kicked in and he wore down Rare Legend to win by 11 lengths.
Ubaltique was the middle leg in the racinguk.com Handicap Hurdle and a change in tactics appears to work the oracle for the 4-1 winner.
Cloudy Joker jumped for fun as the 5-2 favourite in the Cheltenham Preview Evening 28th February Handicap Chase, winning by six lengths.
"Cloudy Joker is a pleasure to have around, he's a bit of a monkey but he's a good, honest Cloudings (sire)," McCain told Racing UK.
"It wasn't a great point-to-point he won but it was the way he did it and I'm a Cloudings fan, one of my best horses (Cloudy Lane) was a Cloudings and he's been very good to me.
"That must be over 50 Irish pointers that have won for us this season and I can't get into the French job at all.
"With Ubaltique we'd got to a stage where we didn't know what to do so we put blinkers on and started dropping him in and it's working.
"I'd like to think this season we are not as one dimensional in not having it all for one day and saving a bit for another. It seems to suit him."
Jonjo O'Neill's Pertemps Final winner Holywell (10-11 favourite) won at the fourth time of asking over fences in the Richmond Beginners' Chase under Tony McCoy.