WARZONE TOM continued his love affair with Crayford when winning his heat of the Ladbrokes Gold Collar (540m) at the Kent track on Saturday, posting the fastest time of the four-heat session in the process.

The August 2019 son of Good News and Bogger Bonnie landed heat and final of the Autumn Trophy over C&D last week and made it a hat-trick of wins at the venue in heat two of the GBGB Category One annual.

Once again it was Ballynabee Lucky who proved his closest rival with the Theresa Dornan-trained runner finishing second to Liz McNair’s dog for the third consecutive time, leading at the first bend and looking to put the favourite under pressure.

However, the strong-running Warzone Tom was always handy despite a stumble and reeled in Ballynabee Lucky on the run for home to win by two lengths in 33.85sec (normal). Aayamza Lexie (Mark Wallis) grabbed the qualifying position here back in third.

Training honours in the Gold Collar heats went to local trainer Julie Luckhurst who sent out Glengar Lucky (34.05sec) and favourite Bens Lad (34.15sec) to win heats three and four respectively, while Garryglass Abbie (33.99sec) struck in the opener for Patrick Janssens.

Graham Banks, deputy racing manager and in charge of the track’s social media output on the day, said: “All in the all, it was a great morning’s racing and good to catch up with trainers and connections beforehand.

“As for the racing itself, ante-post favourite Warzone Tom survived a couple of worrying moments round the opening couple of bends in his Gold Collar heat before proving too strong on the run for home – and in a fastest time, too.

“He’ll no doubt line up a short-priced favourite for his semi-final and for the event outright success and you’ve got to admire his class. He slipped slightly at the first bend and the came together with Ballynabee Lucky, but recovered really well to win.

“It was a good morning for the locals with a double in the Gold Collar heats for Julie Luckhurst – and with two six-bend debutants in Glengar Lucky and Bens Lad.

“Glengar Lucky takes on fellow heat winners Garryglass Abbie and Warzone Tom in the first semi, while Bens Lad has got trap six again for the second semi.

“You’d say the rest of the card was quality, too, with two finals. Alaskan Dawn advertised her claims ahead of the Ladbrokes Cesarewitch heats on Saturday with a wide-margin victory in the Long Dual Distance Trophy Final.

“Having led round the opening bends, Heather Dimmock’s runner went on to secure a runaway victory and must be a real contender for the Cesarewitch.

“We had another dual distance final, this one over hurdles, and it went the way of local trainer Jim Reynolds, whose Toughest Test overcame a poor start to show good early pace to take up the lead and kept up the gallop really well.”

Results: https://www.gbgb.org.uk/meeting/?meetingId=379320&raceId=790714

Form and trap draw for Saturday’s Ladbrokes Gold Collar semi-finals: https://assets.cj1.in/imminent-otter/production/assets/results/Crayford/form-guides/Gold-Collar-Semi-Finals-Form.pdf