PAUL YOUNG sent out a double in the semi-finals of the Coral Golden Sprint at Romford to give him two chances of a record fourth win in the competition on Friday.

On a night of huge shocks at the London Road venue, the Romford handler struck with outsider Yahoo Mareike (16-1) in the first semi and Bombay Buck (5-1) in the third semi for a big-priced double in the Category One event as hot favourites Slingshot Poppy and Bockos Buster were not only beaten but crashed out of the 400m annual.

Yahoo Mareike was quickly away in the opening semi and, with Scottish raider Slingshot Poppy stumbling slightly on leaving the traps, the local bitch was away and on her way to a length and a quarter success over Da Don (Mark Russell) in 23.94sec (+10), the pair securing places in the £10,000-to-the-winner decider.

Kennelmate Bombay Buck later completed a fine night for the Wickford-based set-up as he also trapped well, paced up quickly into the lead, and always led for a runaway six and half lengths success from Swift Hostile (Rose Draper), the recent Sheffield sprint track record holder, in a slick and fastest-of-the-night 23.73sec (+10).

The Young double landed by Yahoo Mareike and Bombay Buck delighted their trainer, who agreed both produced career-best efforts to win their Golden Sprint semis.

“You’d have to say yes,” he said. “Then again, both have a lot of experience, have been in some good races, and are of a similar age coming up to three years of age both.

“As we know at Romford, if you do what they did in their semi-finals, you’ve got every chance – and it doesn’t matter if you’re a 16-1 chance if you trap in front and get away, and that’s what my two did.

“Then again if you miss it, you’re struggling, so we’re not taking anything for granted come the final, but it’s great to be involved again – we go back a long way in the Golden Sprint and it’d be great to win it again,” added the trainer of previous winners Shes Our Star (2004), Droopys Sammer (2005) and Droopys Story (2016).

The latter was the last Romford-trained winner of the Coral Golden Sprint and the newly crowned GBGB Track of the Year will have three chances in this week’s final after Jacktavern Don (Maxine Locke) chased home all-the-way second semi-final winner Sehnsa Amigo as Bradley Stowe’s dog returned to winning ways.

Soon in command, the former Romford-based runner stopped the clock in 23.82sec (+10) as he raced clear to win by two and three-quarter lengths.

Trap draw for Friday’s Coral Golden Sprint Final:  1 Swift Hostile, 2 Yahoo Mareike, 3 Da Don, 4 Sehnsa Amigo, 5 Bombay Buck (m), 6 Jacktavern Don (m).