By Andrew Atkinson
Tom Lacey trained Adrimel tipped by fromthehorsesmouth.info won the William Hill Handicap Chase over 2m 3f at Haydock Park on Saturday under jockey Stan Sheppard.
Adrimel (4-6) gained a neck verdict over Kerry Lee trained Shaman Du Berlais (9-4) the seven-year-old staying on gamely.
Porticello (30-100) tipped to win, landed the William Hill C2 Juvenile Hurdle over 1m 7f gaining an emphatic 17 lengths win ahead of Phil Kirby trained Skycutter (15-2).
Selection, Ch’tibello (3.15) was a non-runner.
Wincanton and Haydock Park passed early morning inspections, amid the Storm Eunice storm on February 18, with the go-ahead given at the Somerset based track, that featured the Grade 2 Kingwell Hurdle with conditions good to soft, soft in places on the chase course, and soft, good to soft in places on the hurdles track.
Wincanton Clerk of the course Daniel Cooper said: “Since the inspection was declared, nothing more has gone wrong, having damaged repair of fences.
“There was a forecast of rain and wind until the first race, that’s pretty usual for winter racing.
“A fallen tree was dragged out of the way and the furlongs of rail and fence that fell off were quickly put back up.”
At Haydock’s Merseyside track the going was heavy, with feature races the William Hill Grand National Trial.
Clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: “The track is fit to race. There was a load of rail down but we got round to putting that up.”
Ascot, where the feature race was the Grade 1 Betfair Ascot Chase, sustained no issues following the storm. The going was soft on both tracks.
Caption: Stan Sheppard: Adrimel Haydock William Hill Handicap win.
