Senan the first round Pall Mall star with superb Oxford victory

SALACRES SENAN was the star of the show in the first round of the BetGoodwin Pall Mall at Oxford on Saturday with a superb performance in heat three of the 450m Category One competition.

Ante-post market leader Rioja Oisin was a red-hot 8/15 favourite on his return to four bends but the champion sprinter could not live with the early speed of Salacres Senan as both recovered from less than stellar breaks.

Clear by the second bend, the Peter Harnden-trained winner pulled further away with every stride as he ultimately scored by over seven lengths from Rioja Oisin in a brilliant 26.68sec on a track rated -40.

Rioja Oisin's trainer Kevin Hutton had dominated proceedings either side of that contest with his Coppice Ella setting the ball rolling in the opener, indeed it was a one-two for the handler as she outstayed littermate Southfield Poppy to win by half a length in 26.95sec.

That was followed by victory for Union Rebel (27.31sec) in heat two with a Hutton treble being completed by Antigua Kestrel (26.91sec) in heat four.

Heat five went to Paul Burr's Yahoo Lolls in 27.29sec with Tom Heilbron's Singalong Rex landing the finale in 27.05sec.

The meeting was delayed by an hour initially to allow the temperature to drop.