Saturday Doncaster review: Reports, reaction and free replays on Grimthorpe Chase day

Best shines in feature

Moroder sprang an 18/1 surprise to deny Undersupervision back-to-back victories in the feature Virgin Bet Grimthorpe Handicap Chase.

The Seamus Mullins-trained winner was in contention down the home straight under James Best but Sam Twiston-Davies and the 3/1 runner-up were in no mood to go down without a fight.

Just as it seemed the winner had finally taken his measure, the the 2022 hero found reserves to rally again, eventually only going down by a neck.

The pair were ten lengths clear of Windsor Avenue in third.

The winning rider told Sky Sports Racing: "This means a helluva lot. It's what it's all about. A lot of hard graft goes into this sport, day in, day out, you're up at five every morning and get knock-backs along the way.

"You have to pick yourself up and keep moving, keep going forward and massive credit to Seamus Mullins who has done so well to get him back. I wouldn't have been surprised had we nicked a bit of prize money in third or fourth but I'm so pleased for all connections and he's a lovely horse to be involved with."

Mullins said: “He had an injury in the autumn which curtailed his campaign and he probably needed the comeback run, as he always does, at Newbury and then we had the frosty weather. He’s a big, gross kind of horse and I’m not a big fan of taking them off for racecourse gallops and things.

“We try to get them ready at home and he probably had come on a lot for his Wincanton run and we thought we had a live chance. We knew we weren’t deserving the long odds that he went off at. He’s a great stayer, a galloper, jumps accurately and he did well today because it would have been plenty quick enough for him, but he seemed to chop with it well.”

The Town Moor contest often serves as a Grand National trial, but not amongst the entrants for Aintree, the winner holds a Midlands National entry and Betfair and Paddy Power both go 20/1 from 50s for that Uttoxeter event on March 18, although Mullins expressed doubts about that contest.

He added: “It might come a bit quick after today. We will have a sit down with the owner and it was kind of more desperation really to find a race where we could run, the way it was going. I would say probably less likely than likely to go to Uttoxeter.

“We will probably look for later in the spring, I will have to discuss it with the owner. Anything from three miles up, I might even think of the Scottish National or something like that. That could be more his line than Uttoxeter.”

Kingmaker second Calico edges thriller

Calico, the horse who gave Jonbon such a scare at Warwick last month, landed a thrilling renewal of the Virgin Bet Cheltenham Festival Money Back Handicap Chase.

Jumping the second last any one of the five runners could win and a fence later the eventual winner, and fellow 11/4 joint-favourite Pay The Piper, had the race between them.

Both pinged that obstacle and went on to fight out a terrific finish with rarely more than the winning distance of a nose between them.

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