BALLYMAC TAYLOR led home Bubbly Inferno in the A1 Astroturf Marathon Match Race over 925m at Romford on Friday on what proved a fantastic occasion and event at the Essex venue.

And the news from Karen McMillan, Romford stadium manager, is that further match races could be scheduled given the response and reaction to the head-to-head proved so positive and wowed the crowd at the track, who fully bought into the concept and cheered the runners from traps to line over the 925m trip.

“First off, I have to say thanks to both sets of connections of Ballymac Taylor and Bubbly Inferno and, in particular, Steve Fluin and Mike Davis who proved great sports in the first place with getting the match race together and then to our additional sponsors on the night, A1 Astroturf, who added to the prize-money.

“It was fantastic to be a part of. The atmosphere was tremendous and was the perfect way to finish the meeting – especially given the race itself was top notch, a really good battle between two outstanding marathon bitches, so well done to both Mark Wallis (Ballymac Taylor) and Paul Young (Bubbly Inferno).

“And it’s something we’d definitely think about doing again in the future. I know they’ve been staged here before – Roxholme Magic beat Rubys Rascal in a 750m match here in 2017 – but this one proved a closer affair and I suppose that’s key, although the betting did suggest it might be an easy win for Ballymac Taylor. It certainly wasn’t!”

Quickly away and soon with the advantage, the MWD Partnership-owned Ballymac Taylor looked set to justify favouritism but could never quite shrug off the challenge of Bubbly Inferno who, to the roars of the locals heading by the owning Champagne Club Syndicate, ranged upsides approaching the winning line for the final time.

Thereafter, it was race-on and the pair went head to head down the back before Ballymac Taylor began to assert with the September 2021 daughter of Ballymac Anton and Ballymac Merkle forging ahead on the run for home for a two-length success over Bubbly Inferno in 59.09sec (normal) for the ten-bend distance.

Happy to have won the match race with Ballymac Taylor, Mike Davis of the MWD Partnership of himself, Mark Wallis and Michelle Connolly, said it was more the taking part in something different which delighted the team.

He said: “It’s fantastic it went so well. We caught the race at Oxford where we were supporting Cat Island in the (RPGTV) Puppy Collar final but it was great to see these two fantastic bitches produce a brilliant battle and, by all accounts, it was a cracking atmosphere at Romford which is great for the sport.

“We are always willing to support something out of the ordinary to generate interest, so when Steve (Fluin, Champagne Club chairman) approached us with the idea we went for it. Steve and the ‘Bubbly Club’ are great sports and love their racing and it was a brilliant idea to showcase two of the best marathon runners around.”

For his part, Fluin was delighted with how well Bubbly Inferno had run, albeit admitted to nerves in the run-up to the race given he felt everyone seemed to write off the local runner. “I was worried I’d got it wrong and that it might be a farce,” he said, “but the bookmakers’ prices seemed to make it one-sided, which I believed it wouldn’t be.

“The race caught the imagination and was a lot of fun. Bubbly Inferno is out of our brood bitch Bubbly Firebird who was herself a marathon bitch so we were always hopeful Inferno was going to be the same and so it’s proved, which is great for the members – and quite special given it’s our breeding programme as such.”

“Finding marathon races has been tough, so I came up with the idea and called Mark (Wallis) and offered him a friendly £1,000-a-side match race. Romford kindly agreed to stage the race and also added £1,000 to the pot and then A1 Astroturf then offered a further £500 to name the race – in total £3,500 to the winner!

“However, this was never about the money, just a friendly match race against very nice opponents. It was a great race and hopefully a real buzz for the sport we all love.”