Nellie Leylax secures decisive Silver Bowl verdict

Nellie Leylax was cheered home by his enthusiastic bunch of local owners to win the £100,000 Betfred Silver Bowl at Haydock.

Given a positive ride by Pierre-Louis Jamin, who was partnering him to a fifth win from just seven rides, the Tom Dascombe-trained gelding never looked like getting beaten.

Jamin took two lengths out of the field well over two furlongs from home and put the race to bed a long way out to win as the 9-2 joint-favourite.

Involvement burst out of the pack to claim second but was beaten by a length and a half.

Owned by Millennial Racing and named after syndicate member Scott Burkert’s gran Nellie Leyland (his sire his Calyx), syndicate manager and Tom Dascombe’s assistant Arthur Owen indicated the Britannia at Royal Ascot would be next, if the ground is soft enough.

Jamin said: “The only time I’ve been beaten on him was when the ground wasn’t soft enough for him.

“He’s been a great horse for the owners, the first horse they ever bought and he was impressive today, it was perfect conditions for him though. There might be more to come, definitely on softer ground.

“Tom’s been great to me for the past couple of years, we had a good winner at Chester and it’s nice to get another big one.”