AVARUA LAKE confirmed himself as a sprinter of note when taking his UK record to two-from-two for trainer Richard Rees with a smooth display over the track’s 285m course on Thursday night.

A winner at the Sussex track last month on his UK debut, Avarua Lake returned from a five week winter break to again lead home Paul Young’s Uncled Ed as he beat the Romford raider by a length in 16.49sec (normal).

The time reflected the fact he may well have needed the blow, but compared favourably enough with the smart 16.36sec (-10) posted at the pre-meeting trial session by his kennelmate and leading two-bend star Shadow Storm (pictured), who has also been on the easy list.

Rees enjoyed a four-timer on the all open-race card, with wins for Zenith Rocket (500m, 29.60sec, -10), Zenith Eze (500m winner-of-one heat, 29.90sec, -20), and Scooby The Lady (500m bitches’ heat, 29.28sec, normal) followed by the victory of Avarua Lake later on the card.

Feature race was the £500 final of the Coral Standard Trophy, which proved a messy affair with victory going to Jamie Kingsley’s Sussex Cyclone.

The 7-1 chance overcame early crowding to take charge and then held off the late rattle of Seamus Cahill-trained favourite Powerhouse Duke by half a length in 29.92sec (-10).

Earlier heats of the winner-of-one competition saw wins for Cahill’s Blackstone Opera (29.44sec, -20) and Carl Gardiner’s Clairkeith Lainy (30.00sec, -20), while Dave Dark’s Ballydoyle Eile (29.64sec, normal) took the first of the bitches’ qualifiers.

The action concluded with two notable runs as Dave Lee’s evergreen veteran Bluejig Baron dominated the 500m seniors’ contest from the front in 29.34sec, while Maxine Locke’s talented Ballymac Axel ran riot in the 515m finale with a 30.10sec effort – both wins coming on going rated normal.

Trap draws
Coral Winner Of One Trophy: 1 Clairkeith Lainy, 2 Blackstone Opera, 3 Zenith Eze, 4 Waitininthewings, 5 Underground Jim (m), 6 Wastehouse Mix (w).
Coral 500 Bitches Trophy: 1 Clairkeith Liana, 2 Yahoo Mareike, 3 Ballydoyle Eile, 4 Scooby The Lady, 5 Harlequin Beauty, 6 Yahoo Maizy (m).

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