DONATION tightened her grip on The Oaks at Swindon on Saturday as the Heather Dimmock-trained star again set the standard in the second-round heats of the bitches’ Classic at the Blunsdon venue.

Racing to a fastest-of-the-night 28.81sec (-60) on a tough night conditions-wise, the Lowther Stakes winner sparkled and tops the betting in an event where the Jabber Crew-owned bitch reached the final 12 months ago at Belle Vue.

Her calculated time of 28.21sec puts her just outside the track record for the 480m trip (28.18sec) and the July 2015 daughter of Droopys Cain and Delightful Flyer heads into the second-round draw with plenty in hand on the clock.

The high-standard of this heat two was underlined by the fact that runner-up Jumeirah Charm, trained Gerry Holian, posted the second fastest time of the night. The Irish-trained bitch made the semi-finals last year in Manchester – ironically going out behind Donation.

The winner’s trainer Heather Dimmock was again delighted. “It wasn’t great out there, but she handled the conditions well. It suited the outside traps and she’s taken her chance well and it’s been a foot-perfect first two rounds of the competition for her.

“She was tired after Nottingham and the first round at Swindon. She had a trial in between, so there wasn’t much time, but seems in great heart now and we can now look forward to the semi-finals next week. You always need good fortune, but she’s running well.”

The second round began with victory for the Kevin Hutton-trained Ravenswood Flo (29.42sec -60), second to Donation in the first round, who showed good pace to lead in heat one and made all from Cadburys Hero (Peter Swadden). The first two only qualified.

Favourite Droopys Live missed out in heat three, finishing third despite staying on well behind Peter Swadden’s Jet Stream Proof. The latter was quickly away and made all, winning by one and a quarter lengths from Ballynabee Lucy (Barry O’Sullivan) in 29.43sec (-60).

Tony Tuffin weighed in with heat four winner Linden Twiggy (29.72sec -60) who also dominated from another Hutton qualifier in Magical Vera, while the Oaks defence of Wuheida came to an end with elimination from heat five.

The Philip Simmonds-trained bitch was crowded out early as the outside traps again dominated, with Champion Stakes finalist Kanturk Repeat (29.44sec -60) landing a double for the Dimmock camp, finishing best to collar Chubbys Caviar (Mark Wallis).

The Richard Baker-trained Sylvias Chloe (29.59sec -60) wrapped up proceedings in the Oaks second round heats with an all-the-way victory in heat six, last year’s finalist at Belle Vue showing good speed to lead home Emers Cookie (Paul Meek) by two lengths.

Gordon Baker, brother and assistant of the winning trainer, said: “It’s a tough time of year for these bitches, but it’s The Oaks and you’ve got to take your chance. We managed to get to the final last year and fingers crossed now heading to the semis.”

Trap draw for next Saturday’s Semi Finals:

Semi Final 1 – 1. Emers Cookie 2. Jumeirah Charm 3. Sylvias Chloe 4. Linden Twiggy(M) 5. Magical Vera (W) 6. Donation (W)

Semi Final 2 – 1. Ballynabee Lucy 2. Ravenswood Flo 3. Chubbys Caviar (M) 4. Cadburys Hero(W) 5. Kanturk Repeat (W) 6. Jet Stream Proof(W)