Eddery at the double

The betting ring, usually a fail-safe barometer to the outcome of a photo-finish, for once called the wrong one home in the featured Sandown Futurity Conditions Stakes yesterday.

Bryan Smart's Bathwick and Pat Eddery, who had made the running, crossed the line in unison with Biennale, the mount of Darryll Holland.

The pair were inseparable to the naked eye but the betting ring seemed in no doubt that Biennale had made a winning debut, quoting the Stoute runner at 1 to 8, with Bathwick at 2 to 1 against.

But the judge's announcement showed 4 to 1 shot Bathwick to be the short-head winner, with a length and a quarter to Wolf Tooth.

"He's hard and he's tough, and he keeps trying and trying," said Smart. "I love him.

"I said to Pat not to be afraid to make it because he'll give what you ask him. He amazes me because he keeps going.

"A mile and a quarter will be his trip next year."

Half-an-hour later Eddery completed a 21 1/2 double as 7 to 2 chance Easter Ogil arrived late to win the Sandown Golf Centre Classified Stakes by a neck from the Holland-partnered Hadith.

The visored three-year-old has been running consistently in handicaps recently and Balding had words of praise for the BHB's initiative in providing his gelding with an alternative.

"It was a perfect little race for him because he is rated 80," he said. "They are very good, these classified stakes races."

Eddery had to settle for silver in the first two races of the card. His mount Khafaya failed to get to Royal Fontaine, ending a sequence of three seconds, in the Bridge Villa Maiden. "It's happened in the end - the bridesmaid's got married," said Royal Fontaine's trainer John Hills.