No Grey Area's and Pa King jump the last well clear © Photo Healy Racing
After two wins over the minimum distance earlier in the campaign, No Grey Area’s (8/1) readily coped with the extra half-mile in the Holden Plant Rentals Handicap Hurdle to gain a wide margin success.
Regular partner Pa King took him to the front from an early stage and got his mount into a good rhythm.
The Califet gelding, very progressive and still only a 6-year-old, coasted clear of his rivals from the second-last to beat 5/2 favourite Street Value by 15 lengths with Mon Lino (11/1) back in third.
Winning trainer Marin Hassett said: “He needed the run the last day as he’d missed a few bits of work with frost. He’s a stuffy horse and you can’t miss work with him.
“He’s a serious horse and we’ve always held him in high regard. It was the same in Clonmel the day he won that we were going to hold him up a bit but he decided he was going to the front and Pa let him off.
“I don’t know what the handicapper is going to do with him now but it’s a good day for us.
“Pa has been brilliant on him. We could put up a professional but he knows him.
“He’s dynamite over a fence. We were going to go for a point-to-point with him and then we said we’d go for a bumper.
“In fairness he probably should have five or six races won by now. The bumpers just didn’t go right for him and we shouldn’t have ran him the last day.”
Quotes from Alan Magee
