KEVIN HUTTON kicked off his campaign to land a first Pall Mall title with three of the six heat winners as the BetGoodwin-backed Category One took centre-stage at the Cowley track on Saturday.

On a night the Peter Harnden-trained Salacres Senan posted the fastest heat time, training honours went to local trainer Hutton as Coppice Ella, Union Rebel and Antigua Kestrel grabbed gold and helped Hutton to a strong hand in the draw for Saturday’s semi-finals with six runners through in the £10,000-to-the-winner event.

Paul Johnson, Oxford’s joint-racing manager, said: “Kevin’s team look strong as expected in the Pall Mall. He’s the leading trainer here and right from the start of the event his team starred and however the semi-final draw panned out your eyes were drawn to where his runners were – and there’s a few of them!

“I thought the pick of his winners was undoubtedly Union Rebel.

“That was his first race since winning the Golden Sprint at Romford, so you’d have to say that’s some training performance to be winning a heat of a Cat One straight off the back of almost four months off. Fair play, though, to Salacres Senan for Peter (Harnden). He was pretty relentless off the front and his time was easily best of the night.”

Kevin Hutton’s Pall Mall stall was set out in heat one as Coppice Ella led home Southfield Poppy for a kennel one-two as last year’s Oaks third improved her Oxford record again with a strong-running effort to grab kennelmate and Produce Stakes heroine Southfield Poppy rounding the last bend and holding that rival by half a length in 26.95sec (-40).

Hutton’s Golden Sprint champion Union Rebel then made a successful return to the track in heat two. Lining up for the first time since his Romford triumph, the June 22 son of Droopys Sydney paced up well to edge fast-starting Ballinakill Liam (Mark Wallis) at the bend and keep that rival at bay for a length success in 27.31sec (-40).

The Hutton treble was completed in heat four as strong-running Antigua Kestrel swooped on the run for home to reel in Crossfield Enzo (Richard Rees) by a length and a half in 26.91sec (-40) for the 450m big-race trip.

Fastest of the session was Peter Harnden’s Salacres Senan in heat two as the July 22 son of Ballymac Kingdom was soon in command, leading up Kent Silver Salver winner Rioja Oisin (Kevin Hutton) and racing away for a seven and a quarter lengths success over that rival in a standard-setting 26.68sec (-40).

The other heats were won by Paul Burr’s Yahoo Lolls, who came through a superb head to head with Madabout Peck (Tom Heilbron) before crossing the line a length clear of the Newcastle raider, in 27.29sec (-40), and the latter’s kennelmate Singalong Rex who was always handy before edging out Aero Pepinillo by a short-head in 27.05sec (-40).

The latter is trained by Monmore trainer Richie Taberner who is eyeing back-to-back wins in the Pall Mall after Aero Sacundai landed the spoils 12 months ago.