IN stark contrast to their previous meeting the Jersey Race Club yesterday enjoyed glorious sunshine and a large crowd who saw Off Minor take the feature event while there were doubles for trainers Alyson Malzard and Colin Macready and jockey Gerald Avranche.

In winning the Warwick Vase, Off Minor made it three out of three at Les Landes this season with his only defeat being at the hands of Crossways on Sarnian soil earlier this month.

The Mike Weaver owned gelding was once again pushed all the way by Minnie’s Mystery for the last furlong after taking over from long time leader Palala River but Jockey Tony Proctor always seemed to have more in reserve than the runner up and held on by one length with Royal Starlet making a pleasing Jersey debut a further length away in third.

The winner will no doubt be a hot favourite for the Jersey Derby in late July and is looking the only serious contender to land the Shepherd’s Crook triple crown bonus.

The afternoon’s action started with a two mile conditional hurdle and saw Keep On Running dominate from pillar to post to win by an easy 16 lengths from Shinbang.

Those who backed Alyson Malzard’s gelding were counting their winnings a long way from home as the rest of the field had allowed the winner a 20 length lead and apart from a slight mistake at the third last flight she was never in danger of being pegged back and won easing down.

The Mitie (Jersey) Handicap over seven furlongs saw prolific winner at the minimum distance Highland Flight make her normal fast start but not surprisingly she found the extra two furlongs stretched her stamina.

She faded away coming into the home straight as Perfect Portrait cruised into the lead with what seemed a winning burst, but any hope of victory that his supporters had was short lived as the Colin Macready trained newcomer Missus Links eased past under the guidance of Gerald Avranche to take the honours by a length with Catcando making his belated seasonal reappearance five lengths back in third.

The winner was formally trained by Richard Hannon and looks to be a useful recruit to the Macready yard.

Macready and Avranche completed a double for the afternoon when Snow Lark took the SGB Handicap in a driving finish from Regal Ali, the pair finishing eight lengths clear of Twist.

The winner has certainly started the season in fine form having won two and finished second twice in her four races to date, although she is likely to find things tougher as she moves up the handicap and into a better class of race.

The Alyson Malzard trained Khuzdar had gone down in many notebooks as a sure fire future winner after his first two runs earlier this year and was in the process of making his move when slipping up at L’Ancresse earlier this month, but yesterday he showed no signs of damage from his tumble and duly rewarded the patience of his supporters.

The six year old was ridden with supreme confidence by Ross Studholme and made smooth headway down the back straight before being driven into the lead to win by a length from Last Eclipse with Hakam back in third.

With a third of the season gone Stephen Arthur leads the trainers championship with seven winners, three ahead of Alyson Malzard, Tony Proctor is the leading jockey with six successes, while the ultra consistent Off Minor heads the champion racehorse table.

Next meeting is on Sunday 12 June with the usual 2.30 pm start.