Non-runners limit Doncaster field
There was a dramatic start to the card at Doncaster this afternoon with the Howard Hughes Memorial Heartbeat Handicap, won by Marvo, decimated by non-runners.
Six were taken out because of the fast ground, one with a temperature and then Climaxtackledotcom being withdrawn at the stalls after behaving badly.
The ground was officially good, good to firm in places at the start of proceedings but was changed to good to firm following the opener.
This left only six leaving the stalls and 5-1 chance Marvo came out best of them, Tom Queally bringing the Mark Tompkins-trained gelding with a perfectly-timed run to collar Tiger Dream in the last 100 yards and edge one and a quarter lengths clear.
Tompkins admitted: "I nearly did not run this horse, he does not like fast ground but we just got away with it today, Tom said he would not want it any quicker.
"But to be fair as he is a soft ground horse it can't be too bad and I will run my other two runners even though they prefer a bit of cut too."
