Simpex Express Dash
Heritage Handicap, Epsom 15:45
£100,000 guaranteed,
3yo plus,
5f, Class 2   
Saturday 4th June 2022

Quinnbet

1 Tees Spirit 10/1
2 Mountain Peak 50/1
3 Equality 14/1
4 Mokaatil 14/1
20 ran Time: 54.15s (slow by 0.15s)
Time: 54.15s (slow by 0.15s)

Adrian Nicholls trained Tees Spirit to victory, having ridden Rudi’s Pet to success for his father David ‘Dandy’ Nicholls in 2002.

The win victory continued the family’s long association with the race, with Nicholls senior being successful five times between 1997 and 2009.

Tees Spirit was away well under McHugh and quickly grabbed the stands rail from favourite Live In The Dream and the four-year-old never left that spot as he remained prominent all the way to the line.

He dug deep where it mattered most to prevail by a head from Mountain Peak, who at one stage appeared the most likely winner of a typically rough renewal of this helter-skelter five-furlong event.

The game performance of the winner was made even more special as it came on the five-year anniversary of the death of Nicholls’ father.

Nicholls said: “My old man loved it down here and I was lucky enough to win one for him. At the start of every year, he would always try to plan them out.

Trainers Quotes

“When this lad won at Beverley, Baz (McHugh) was quite keen to go to Newcastle for the Gosforth Park Cup. I was adamant, especially after Nottingham, I was coming here.

“Everyone can see he is clearly improving. Baz has done an excellent job on him and Claire, my wife, rides him out and we are a small team.

“To come down here on a Derby day and win, I took it for granted when I was lucky enough – I wasn’t the best of riders – to ride the old man’s horses. I took it for granted riding these good horses, who are good horses. Now training them, I really appreciate what he actually did. He was a genius.”

He added: “It was five years ago to this day that he died, so it was quite poignant. I needed a little bit of help – I don’t know if anyone believes in all of that, but we’ve come down here and won and it is unbelievable.

“I always wanted to make him proud. To win a Dash, you can’t do much more. He always used to say it is our kind of Derby, as we never had any mile-and-a-half horses.”

Mathematician Betting

World Pool 'Dash' (Heritage Handicap)
£100,000 guaranteed, 3yo plus, 5f, Class 2
20 ran
Going: Good

POS. (DRAW) DIST HORSE AGE TRAINER JOCKEY SP
1 (10)     Tees Spirit 4 8-7 Adrian Nicholls Barry McHugh 10/1
2 (2) hd Mountain Peak 7 9-8 Ed Walker Tom Marquand 50/1
3 (4) 2¼ Equality 4 9-4 Charles Hills Jack Mitchell 14/1
4 (9) shd Mokaatil 7 8-11 Ian Williams Harry Davies 14/1
5 (17) 1¼ Live In The Dream 3 9-2 Adam West Sean Kirrane 6/1F
6 (18) nk Stone Of Destiny 7 9-2 Andrew Balding David Probert 10/1
7 (15) ¾ Thegreatestshowman 6 8-3 Amy Murphy Silvestre De Sousa 18/1
8 (6) 1 Live In The Moment 5 9-0 Adam West Jason Hart 33/1
9 (13) 1½ Mid Winster 6 8-13 Paul Midgley Graham Lee 7/1
10 (19) nk Tone The Barone 6 9-4 Stuart Williams Marco Ghiani 25/1
11 (7) nk Fine Wine 5 9-5 Scott Dixon Jonathan Fisher 8/1
12 (3) 1½ Dusky Lord 4 8-13 Roger Varian David Egan 9/1
13 (20) nse King Of Stars 5 9-10 Michael Appleby Alistair Rawlinson 16/1
14 (5) ¾ Lipsink 5 8-9 Robert Cowell Hollie Doyle 50/1
15 (16) ½ A Sure Welcome 8 8-9 John Spearing William Carson 50/1
16 (12) 1½ Blue De Vega 9 9-10 Robert Cowell Adam Kirby 66/1
17 (8) hd Mulzim 8 8-10 Mike Murphy Shane Kelly 100/1
18 (11) 1½ Sunday Sovereign 5 9-7 Tim Easterby Rob Hornby 25/1
19 (14) 4 Master Matt 6 9-12 Matthew J Smith Ronan Whelan 28/1
20 (1) 51 Justanotherbottle 8 9-12 Kevin Ryan Kevin Stott 14/1