Luminaries racks up fourth win in five meetings for Hawick racehorse trainer Ewan Whillans at Kelso’s ladies’ day

The eight-year-old bay gelding followed up three first-place finishes at Newcastle in March and April, two with Sean Quinlan riding and the other with Henry Brooke as jockey, with another on home turf in the Borders at the weekend.

Quinlan was back in the saddle for that latest success, at 10-1, after also pulling up Luminaries at Bangor-on-Dee in Wales at the end of last month.

He finished a neck ahead of Nathan Moscrop on 15-8 favourite Wee Alki, trained in Northumberland by Sue Corbett, in the three-mile-plus Borders Growers and Distillers Handicap Hurdle to claim its top prize of £4,753.

North Yorkshire trainer Justin Landy’s Express Run was third in a field of six, with Brian Hughes riding, and Billable Grant, trained by Jackie Stephen at Lilliesleaf and ridden by Joshua Thompson, was fourth.

Whillans was glad to see Luminaries return to winning ways, saying: “The ground was probably against him at Bangor and Sean gets a nice tune out of him.

“He shouldn’t go up too much for this, so we will keep him on the go.”

Luminaries’ win was Whillans’ second of the weekend, Zephlyn having notched up the other at 5-4 the day before at Catterick in North Yorkshire over just short of a mile and eight furlongs, with Callum Rodriguez riding, earning £4,187.

Quinlan’s first-place finish in that 3.23pm race was one of two for him on the day, the other being in the opening 2.13pm JA Wilson Contractors Novices’ Hurdle on 1-2 favourite Pergamon for Jennie Candlish’s Staffordshire yard.

Kelso’s Sandy Thomson and Selkirk’s Stuart Coltherd also contested that two-mile race, offering a top prize of £4,357, with the former’s Kow Boy Sivola finishing sixth out of seven and the latter’s Champ de Gane fourth, with Hughes and Alan Doyle riding respectively.

Three-time champion jockey Hughes also racked up a winning double on Spartan Warrior and Cushendall.

The former, a four-year-old bay gelding trained by Rebecca Menzies in County Durham, won the two-mile-two-furlong Molson Coors Handicap Hurdle at 4-1 on his Kelso debut, collecting prize money of £3,961, with Theo Gillard second on Guillaume for Cheshire trainer Donald McCain Jnr and Ed Austin third on Away She Goes for Paul Robson, formerly of Denholm but now based in Northumberland.

Jet Patrol was fourth in a field of nine for that 2.48pm race for Thomson, with Lewis Dobb as jockey, and Stephen’s Clan Chieftain, ridden by Quinlan, was fifth.

Irish trainer Stuart Crawford’s Cushendall, a five-year-old bay mare racing for the first time, finished at the front of a field of four in the concluding See You in September Mares’ Open National Hunt Flat Race over two miles, landing a prize of £2,723.

Jockey Jordan Gainford and County Meath trainer Cian Collins teamed up for their first Kelso win with Impero at 5-2 in the day’s £20,000 feature race, the two-mile Celebrating Dick’s 90th Handicap Hurdle at 3.58pm.

The six-year-old bay gelding finished ten lengths clear of runner-up Simple Star, ridden by Brooke for Cumbria’s Dianne Sayer, to secure a top prize of £10,406, with Quinlan getting home fifth and last on Findthetime for Coltherd.

“It’s my first visit to the track and I’m very impressed,” said Gainford.

“They’ve done a great job and the ground is good.

“That was brilliant. It’s nice to come over, and when you have a winner, it makes it all worthwhile.

“He’s a classy horse and was giving away a lot of weight there. He was good. He’s a smart horse on his day.”

The day’s other race, the 4.33pm Ponsse UK Mares’ Handicap Hurdle over almost two miles and five furlongs, was won by 5-2 favourite Feach Amach, ridden by Thompson for Adam Nicol’s Northumbrian yard.

The five-year-old chestnut mare finished a length ahead of Thomson and Dobb’s Theirshegoes to earn a prize of £4,225.

Sunday’s ladies’ day meeting was the last of the season at Kelso, with next term starting on Wednesday, September 17.

Looking back over last term, the racecourse’s managing director, Jonathan Garratt, said: “Ladies’ day at Kelso gets more popular every year and we enjoyed hosting a lively crowd.

“Nearly 2,000 race-goers stayed on for the after-party featuring the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and the atmosphere was amazing.

“We’ve enjoyed a good season with large crowds for our highest-quality events, and although the weather claimed a fixture in January, we generally dodged the worst of the wind, rain and frost.”

Garratt singled out another win for Whillans, by Cracking Rhapsody in March’s £120,000 Bet365 Morebattle Hurdle, with Hawick’s Craig Nichol riding, for the second year on the spin, as the race he enjoyed most last season, saying: “The racing highlight of the season was Cracking Rhapsody winning the Morebattle Hurdle for the second consecutive year because of his local connections.”