BEAMING ISLA (8-1) capped a superb weekend for trainer Maxine Locke when winning theultimatetipster.com Sandy Lane Sprint Final at Oxford.

The newly sponsored Category Two event, staged alongside four heats of the bet365 Hunt Cup at the Cowley track, always looked a competitive affair and the fine margins of sprints required a decent start – and Romford raider Beaming Isla was able to come away and pace up into what proved a winning lead.

Thereafter, the September 2022 daughter of Doolin Duke and Beaming Rosie was away and on her way to success in the £3,000-to-the-winner contest over 253m.

However, her rivals were never that far away and both Avarua Lake (Richard Rees) and Jazzy George (Kevin Hutton), the 5-4 favourite, kept up the pressure in behind before the winner crossed the line a half a length and the same from those rivals in a winning time of 15.04sec (-15) to land the biggest win of her career.

An experienced sort with wins at Kilkenny and Limerick before joining Locke’s team, Beaming Isla has proven a regular winner for connections with the JR Racing Syndicate-owned runner notching victories at Hove and Central Park, both tracks proving particular happy hunting grounds. At the latter she reached last year’s Arc Silver Salver final.

“And that was a pretty hot final won by Kevin’s dog (Rioja Oisin) in a track record time, so she was hardly winning out of turn at Oxford,” said winning trainer Locke.

“You never really know with sprints but we thought the make-up of the race was good and she had a chance – and was probably too big price-wise when you think of some of her form. She had to do it right and thankfully she did – and, to be fair, she has a good record in the final. She’s won two finals at Hove and now this one at Oxford.

“It’s great for the team and we all love Isla, she’s a lovely bitch, and it definitely made a good weekend for us even better,” added Locke.

“It was busy, mind. We were racing at Oxford with Isla, Monmore (Ladbrokes Puppy Derby) with the pups, and Central Park (Arc Kent Plate). We were at Romford the night before but not on Saturday given we had to be everywhere else!

“Romford really have been fantastic to us. They understand we’re about concentrating more on our open-race dogs hence the plan to move the set-up to Central Park and we’re expecting that to happen some time in May,” added Locke.