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Bet Direct Winter Derby
Lingfield Park
This valuable two-day meeting is the highlight of the all-weather season – now a valued and increasingly popular part of the racing scene.
Designed to reward the stars of the winter Flat racing programme, the meeting culminates in a ‘champions day’ on the Saturday, followed in the evening by a gala awards ceremony for the season’s best all-weather performers.
The highlight of champions day is the Littlewoods Bet Direct Winter Derby, a 10-furlong event for three-year-olds and upwards. The day also features the ladbrokes.com Spring Cup, a seven-furlong classic trial for three-year-olds, the Arena Leisure Sprint, a conditions event over five furlongs, and the first two-year-old race of the year, the five-furlong Juvenile.
The meeting reflects the growing stature of all-weather racing, which has attracted better-quality horses and top jockeys in recent years. The 2005 Winter Derby was won by John Egan on Eccentric, who then went on to win the Vodafone Rose Bowl at the Epsom Derby meeting. Other high-class horses first seen on the all-weather include Parasol, Elusive City and Romantic Liason.
There is no doubt that all-weather racing provides first-class entertainment and competitive racing – and nowhere more so than at ‘leafy’ Lingfield, which remains one of the most popular racing venues in the south of England.
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