HEATHER DIMMOCK took the training honours by sending out litter brothers Raise The Stakes and Down To The Felt for a double strike in the heats of the British Breeders Stakes at Nottingham on Monday.

The now Henlow-based handler, who also qualified Fahrenheit Daz through to the semi-finals of The Hawk Henlow Derby the afternoon before, has two semi-finalists in the British-bred showpiece courtesy of the Gary Norville-bred littermates.

First up of the Dimmock-trained pair was Raise The Stakes, who was always in front in heat one as he crossed the line a length clear of Decoy Junior (Kevin Cobbold) in 30.13sec (+30) for the competition’s 500m distance.

Down To The Felt landed the Dimmock double in heat three as he set the fastest time of the first round when leading early, as hot favourite King Lennon found trouble, to score a runaway victory by ten and a quarter lengths from Russanda Rubin (Gary Birtles) in 29.87sec (+30).

A delighted Dimmock said: “It was a great way to start the event. We’ve always thought a lot of the pair and Raise The Stakes has already reached a Produce Stakes final at Swindon, so we’re hopeful we can repeat that.

“He always looked a good sort, even from his form in the Gymcrack at Kinsley. He’s just been something of a ‘sicknote’ with various small issues but can certainly run. It’d be just nice to get a string of good runs together. Monday’s a start!

“Down To The Felt is a strong-running sort, so when he’s led you knew it’d be a decent time – and so it proved. They were bred here but reared in Ireland by Emmett Hazlett and we were told there wasn’t much between them when they came back to us.

“Before tonight I always felt ‘Bluey’ ran better at Sheffield than Nottingham, but he has won races at Notts and Monday’s run was a cracker. He’s a dog who always gives his best in every race he has, and the draw in six in the semis is a help again.”

Liz McNair enjoyed mixed fortunes with her six Nottingham British Breeders Stakes entries, with four eliminated, although Trafalgar Cup winner King Sheeran (29.81sec +30) really impressed with a strong-running effort in heat two after early crowding.

In beating the John Mullins’ pair of Carn Brea and Romeo Mandate, King Sheeran makes it through to next week’s semis and will be joined by littermate King Diamond who ran second to Angie Kibble’s Let Me Tell You (30.13sec +30) in the final heat.

Heat four saw a huge shock as the Jamie Kingsley-trained Enzo Sfizio landed a 20-1 blow for punters as he led early to beat Carl Perry’s Geelo Monty in 30.02sec (+30), while heat five went to Jim Hayton’s Viking Jerry, who made all in 30.09sec (+30) from Burton Lodge Bob (Paul Young).

Nottingham director Nathan Corden said: “It’s been a great start to the event. We’ve lost a few of the fancied runners, but there’s been some cracking performances, too, and this event has again proved really popular with owners, trainers and British breeders.

“It’s very much part of a strong end-of-year schedule here at Nottingham. We’ve got the Eclipse, sponsored this year by Mark Lowther’s company, plus the National Sprint to come – so it’s major races all the way for us which we really do feel is important.

“The British Breeders Stakes is a joint effort between us and the BGBF and we work with John Marriott on trying to make the event the best we all can.”

Trap draw and form: www.bagsracing.com/assets/22-october—nottingham-adv.pdf