MARK WALLIS regained the title when landing the £10,000 to-the-winner Betfair Trainers Championship with a thrilling two-point win over Charlie Lister at Doncaster on Tuesday night.
Wallis had a bad start when his puppy Aero Bolt was knocked over in the opener. But the team bounced back with wins in legs two, five, six and most importantly leg eight.
However, a poor run from St Leger winner Kinda Easy in leg seven, a race won by Lister’s 8-1 chance Carbarns Tom, meant he had it all to do in the final event.
Wallis needed Eye Onthe Storm to win the final race and Lister’s Tyrur Speedy to be third or worse and so it proved with the latter finishing fourth after an early setback.
First of the eight-legged Championship battles was the 483m contest for pups and Farley Blitz (4-6), Barrie Draper’s ‘banker of the night’, secured a hard-fought ten points for his kennel with a game 1L win over the gutsy Swift Planet in 29.70sec.
Leg two of the Championship saw the Sprinters (275m) take centre-stage and Mark Wallis’ Directors Wit (3-1) ran out an easy winner (by 5L in 16.74sec) – a success aided by a badly missed break by the odds-on Jimmy Lollie.
Next up was the first of four Standard (483m) contests and here defending champion Charlie Lister opened his account with Jordansoilutions (11-10F). The winner stamped his authority off the second bend and powered clear from thereonin to beat Eden Rocket by 3L in 29.55sec.
The first of two Stayers’ events (661m) went off at 8.35 and the Lister bandwagon was well and truely rolling when Droopys Belletti (1-2F), a brother to the top class Droopys Del Sol, produced a stunning performance in beating Go Big Hitter by 4L in 41.69sec.
Race five saw team Wallis record their second win on the night when Dalcash Scolari (9-2) bombed out and made all the running to beat Bosscroker by 4 1/2L in 29.52sec . And with Lister’s Fear Zafonic only finishing fifth the two trainers were now level on points with three legs to go.
The third of the 483-metre Standard races was sure to be pivotal. The two protagonists saw their charges go to war with Wallis’ Eye Eye Pickle (3-1) getting first run on Lister’s Bandicoot Tipoki (4-7F) in the buckle of the night. There was only 1/2L in it at the line with ‘Pickle’ clocking 29.51sec.
The penultimate contest, the second of the 661m Stayers events, saw an amazing turn of events. Just when Wallis seemed to have the title in the bag his Kinda Easy finished a disapponting sixth and to make matters worse Lister’s Carbarns Tom (8-1), who had run a blinder in the Yorkshire St Leger here last term, made all to beat Raving Black by 4 1/2L in 41.84sec.
Going into the final leg Lister (Tyrur Speedy) held a five-point lead over Wallis (Eye Onthe Storm). The ‘Storm’ did the business when making all beating Carden Bert by 2 3/4L in 29.49sec while Tyrur Speedy could only finish fourth giving Wallis a two-point victory over his arch rival.
Final points: Wallis 49, Lister 47, Draper 30, Childs 28, Allsopp 27, Cahill 27.
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