Horse Racing: Shamayoun adds a of class to the holiday atmosphere; PLUMPTON.

Byline: by Graham Dench

THEY turned out in greater numbers than ever for Plumpton's traditional Easter Monday fixture, and a crowd estimated at 10,000 was rewarded with warm sunshine, decent-sized fields and even one of last month's Cheltenham winners.

Few can have expected to have seen a Festival winner competing here so soon for a winner's prize of under pounds 3,000, but that was the case when the Fred Winter victor Shamayoun ran in the opening juvenile hurdle.

Starting a surprisingly generous 8-15, he duly landed the odds in the hands of his Cheltenham partner Paddy Brennan, but he was hardly impressive.

David Plunkett, representing trainer Charles Egerton, said: "He got taken off his feet at Aintree the other day and so came here for a confidence booster. He's quite a lazy horse and is never going to give himself an easy time."

Egerton looked to have a big chance of a double in the concluding maiden hurdle, but his Hobbs Hill was a late withdrawal with a vet's certificate. With four others already withdrawn on account of the drying ground the race was won very easily by Leighton Aspell on Ken's Dream, who was winning for the first time since joining Lucy Wadham.

Ken's Dream loves fast ground and will be kept on the go through the summer. So too will Saddlers Cloth, whose runaway win in the maiden chase was a first over jumps since December for trainer Jonathan Geake.

Geake looked like scoring again with Peveril Pride in the staying chase, but the 33-1 chance was worn down before the last by the Heather Dalton-trained Test Of Friendship, whose stable shows a good level-stake profit here.

A ten-month drought came to an end for Richard Mitchell when the pony-sized Denarius Secundus won the selling chase in style. Mitchell said: "They've run well all season, so I was never worried about not having winners."

Robert Alner won the handicap hurdle with Manawanui, who rather lost his way but is back in business now and should pay his way back over fences.

Star performance

Shamayoun was the class act on a card that had an end-of-term look about it

Quote of the day

"That was mint. Can we do it again!" - Soccer AM host Helen Chamberlain, who was in the firing line throughout and enjoyed the thrill of a lifetime when third on veteran Danakil behind charity race specialist Cappanrush. It was her first ride in public after a crash course at Simon Dow's, where she was tutored by Richard Dunwoody, but one wouldn't have guessed it

CAPTION(S):

Manawanui lands the handicap hurdle at Plumpton (right), while Soccer AM presenter Helen Chamberlain enjoys the build-up to her ride in the charity event JON WINTER