racing at Market Rasen.

COMPETITIVE racing across the card brought the curtain down on the 2007/8 National Hunt season when Market Rasen again hosted the closing fixture.

There were some important presentations, principal among them to conditional jockey Brian Hughes who with 38 winners under his belt during the season was the national 'Conditional Jockeys Championship' winner.

He received his trophy from former flat race jockey Kevin Darley. Hughes has made his mark at Market Rasen in the past year with a double at last summer’s big meeting on ‘Love that Benny’ and ‘King of the Arctic’.

He certainly found Market Rasen a rewarding track, boasting a 33 per cent strike rate over the year.

Hughes made his mark on Saturday with a 14-1 winner on Doris’s Gift in the fifth race, a handicap hurdle for conditional jockeys.

Favourites in Blushing Hiliary (7-4) in the opener and Kavabak (9-4) in the bumper at the end of the card were first past the post on an afternoon when there were wins for plenty of outsiders.

Short priced top weight Ruari took the novices handicap chase, while Ouzbeck (15-2) took the novices hurdle. Bronson F’sure (15-2) with a gutsy effort took the handicap chase, and Alam at 4-1 was a 22 length runaway winner of the Rase Veterinary Centre Conditional Jockey’s Handicap Chase.

Eighty five runners went to post for the seven races as a healthy crowd, basking for once in the sunshine, saw some competitive races.

There was no reward for local trainers. Michael Chapman saw both Ilovetrifle and Present Oriented struggle and Springfield Raki ran unplaced for Steve Gollings in the bumper.

l Racing next on Sunday May, 18, from 2pm.