Steel Ally makes all to win the Betfair Racing Podcasts Handicap Hurdle

Steel Ally makes all to win the Betfair Racing Podcasts Handicap Hurdle at Haydock Park

Sam Thomas's six-year-old landed a first win of the season on Merseyside while Jonjo and AJ O'Neill's Roadlesstravelled also triumphed

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Top weight Steel Ally (6-1) landed a game front-running victory – ploughing through the mud to win the Betfair Racing Podcasts Handicap Hurdle.at Haydock Park on Saturday afternoon.

The Sam Thomas-trained six-year-old won one of his four starts over hurdles last season at Wincanton. But he made a taking seasonal return when finishing second to stable-mate and fellow Walters Plant Hire Ltd-owned Lump Sum at Ffos Las last month. And he built on that promise, stepped up from two mile to 2m3f to triumph at Haydock.

Under amateur jockey Dylan Johnston, Steel Ally cut out much of the running with 3-1 favourite Josh The Boss happy to be just sat off him in second. But Steel Ally move cleared coming into the back turn and he tried to stretch his rivals in the final half mile of the 2m3f contest. As Josh The Boss faded, Harry Fry's Beat The Bat (7-1), ridden by Bryan Carver, came out of the pack to try and challenge. But Steel Ally was jumping and travelling well in the soft conditions his jockey believed he wouldn't like. Steel Ally continued to keep them all at bay and scored by three lengths from Beat The Bat, with Knight Of Allen (14-1) a neck back in third with Kamsinas (12-1) fourth.

Winning jockey Johnston said: "He is a nice horse. It was a career-high mark, stepping up in trip and the whole way here I was swearing the rain falling. But it toughed it out today in it. He dug in and has done it well. We will see the best of him on better ground. It's nice to get a form boost of any kind but when it's one of your own, it's great."

Roadlesstravelled (7-4 favourite) won the opener at Haydock, the Grade Two Betfair Supports Safer Gambling Week Newton Novices’ Hurdle. A winner of a point-to-point in Ireland last May, the five-year-old had won both his starts at Market Rasen and Wetherby over the past two months since switching to the Jonjo and AJ O’Neills’ stable. He continued that progress to bring up the hat-trick stepped up to Grade Two company for the first time. Under Jonjo O'Neill junior, Roadlesstravelled led from start to finish of the two-mile contest. He eventually went to score by three lengths from the Dan Skelton-trained Country Mile (5-1), who tried to challenge but a mistake at the last flight proved costly. Although Roadlesstravelled almost seemed to have things in hand.

Roadlesstravelled is likely to be aimed at the Cheltenham Festival or the Randox Grand National meeting at Aintree Racecourse later on with the Jackdaws Castle handler keen to take his time with a horse who has already shown a lot of promise.

Trainer Jonjo O'Neill said: "He is great form. He likes the good ground and we will see (where he runs next) but he is a nice horse to have. I thought he would jump better on better ground. He jumped okay but he will be much slicker on quicker ground. I would say for sure (we would be aiming at the spring Festivals). Personally I think he will get further but he is doing all right at two (miles) so we will keep him at that for now.

"He is not a bad one. He is a nice horse and we are delighted to have him. The owners have been really patient with him all last season. When they win their point-to-point they are fairly hard-trained. But he has relaxed a lot more now and he is going the right way. So we will keep him going. You sit on him on a Monday morning you know you are sitting on something. He is fairly lively but he is great horse, a good attitude.

"I don't know where he will go next. If it (ground conditions) gets really bad we will ease off him. You would like to go for the Betfair Hurdle (at Newbury in February) but we would have to get another run into him in between. But it's getting another run into him. We will have to see the what the weather is like."

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