NORTON’s Brian Ellison landed his second valuable jump prize of the year when Tiger Jet won the cavani.co.uk Challenger Stayer Hurdle Series Final at Haydock Park on Saturday.

The race was one of three events in the Challenge Series, each of which carried £50,000 in total prize money, with the runners all having had to run in qualifiers during the season.

A wide-margin winner at Hexham back in October, Tiger Jet also won a novice hurdle at Newcastle in November before three slightly lesser runs.

Given a nice break since finishing sixth in a handicap at Kelso in February, the seven-year-old was spot-on for his seasonal target on Saturday and he did not disappoint.

Sent off at 11-1, he was held up just behind the leaders in the early stages, but making up ground in the straight, he hit the front between the last two flights and was driven out by jockey Henry Brooke to beat the West Country raider, The Changing Man, by three and a quarter lengths.

Afterwards his rider said: “He scraped in off a lightweight and obviously loves the good ground. Brian said he’d had him away and worked him this week and he’d gone really well. We’ve been dropping him in and he’s been too keen, whereas today he was still as keen but I was a lot nearer to the pace and he didn’t have as much ground to make up.”

Richard Fahey was another local trainer with a winner on Saturday when Monsieur Kodi landed the Ina and Ella MacGregor Handicap over five furlongs at Musselburgh.

Although a winner at Ayr and Carlisle last season, he had been rather out of form since and was an 11-1 chance for Saturday’s contest.

But in the hands of Oisin Orr, he came through strongly in the closing stage to take the £6,200 first prize by half a length from the Scottish-trained Black Friday.

The win was some compensation for trainer and rider for they had earlier teamed up with Vintage Clarets who had finished runner-up to Silkie Wilkie in the tote World Pool Scottish Sprint Cup worth £23,000 to the winner.

Things didn’t go the horse’s way in that race as he was hampered at the start and then met interference soon after halfway.

Whether it made any difference to the result is debatable though, for the Middleham-trainer winner absolutely blitzed home by four and three-quarter lengths and looks a pretty useful sprinter in the making.

At least the Fahey team had a weekend winner and so enjoyed more luck than trainer Julie Camacho who had high hopes of Shaquille winning the £77,000 TalkSport All-weather Three-Year-Old Championship over six furlongs at Newcastle on Friday.

It was not to be, though, for the three-year-old, who had been beaten on only one of his previous four starts, was not on his best behaviour. The occasion seemed to get the better of him and he got very worked up down at the start and then refused point blank to go into the stalls and to the frustration of his connections had to be withdrawn.

There will be other days for him but this looked a fine opportunity to net a valuable prize.

Overall, it wasn’t Julie’s day on Friday, which was all-weather finals day, for Dingle could finish only third when 11-4 favourite for the £33,000 Spreadex SportsAll-Weather Vase mile handicap at Lingfield.

Just over an hour later, the talented Qaasid was beaten a length into second place in the 10-furlong Bet UK All-Weather Vase Middle Distance Handicap which was also worth more than £33,000 to the winner.