Urban Lion sees off Rogue Diplomat in Lincoln thriller Edward Greatrex secured his biggest win for 11 years and aided Jack Channon’s big double on the opening day of the turf season as Urban Lion prevailed in the William Hill Lincoln at Doncaster. Channon had already been victorious in the Spring Mile with Mezcala when making the perfect start to the term on Town Moor. In the Lincoln Botanical took them along at the front as the field congregated at the centre of the course in what was a steadily run race in the early stages. Urban Lion and Rogue Diplomat came out of the pack as the line approached and a photo finish showed Greatrex had just got his 9-1 shot up on the line by a nose. Greatrex had won the Balmoral Handicap on Saeed bin Suroor’s Musaddas as a 5lb claimer in 2015. “We’ve joked about it all winter, saying we’ve got two horses that we’re prepping for both divisions,” said Channon. “He’s been training beautifully all spring and I did think we were beat but thankfully it went our way. “I think the second probably headed him. Eddie said he had to commit him a bit earlier than he wanted because everything had stopped in front and he battled back again. “He’s a good horse and we knew there was one of these big races in him. I thought we were beat but Eddie got his head down on the line. “He’s not going to go up massively in the handicap for that, he’ll be running in those big handicaps and we’ll try to get some black type for him as well. “Those big, straight miles are what he wants. This has been the plan all winter but I was a bit worried about the ground coming here today, worried about it being too soft as he’s a good moving horse but he handled that today. “I keep saying that if we keep doing things right the big results will come and they are, we’ve got a lovely team of horses to go to war with this season.”
