Headford Sarah, Bretons Girl and Lesleys Buddy booked their places in next Monday’s SIS Sprint Trophy final after an exciting trio of semi-finals over Harlow’s 238m on Monday evening.

Semi-final one went the way of Headford Sarah, much to the delight of her connections, who cheered her every step of the way. The Maxine Locke-trained bitch, sent off the 5/6 favourite, was quickly into stride from trap two before taking command approaching the second bend and going on to score by 2¼ lengths from Yahoo Megan in 15.13sec.

The performance continued Headford Sarah’s excellent run through the competition, having produced a particularly impressive 14.98sec calculated effort when winning her first-round heat by 5¾ lengths a week earlier.

Bretons Girl brought up a double on the night for trainer Nathan Hunt, with Whisky Man having taken the previous race, the Harlow Monday Maiden. Early pace and avoiding early trouble proved decisive for Bretons Girl, who moved into the lead at the second bend and pulled clear to beat Sunnyside Ted by 2¾ lengths in 15.26sec.

The final qualifier was Lesleys Buddy, who produced the fastest time of the three semi-finals with an impressive 15.01sec. The Paul Young-trained runner led on the run-up and quickly put the contest to bed in impressive fashion, stretching clear to defeat favourite Nightingale Crew by six lengths.