Jimmy Fyffe, Scott Townshend dish out £7,000 for Benson in Doncaster sales

Robbie Power rides Sizing John to win the prestigious 3.4 mile Cheltenham Gold Cup during the Cheltenham Festival. PHOTO | COURTESY

Dundee-based, Jimmy Fyffe and Scott Townshend, dished out £7,000 for Benson in the Doncaster sales ring last year, which was repaid many times over after the eight-year-old landed the £100,000 Morebattle Hurdle.

They are now in line for a £100,000 bonus if the horse can follow up in either the Coral Cup or the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham.

They paid tribute to trainer Sandy Thomson, who has made his name by bringing cast-offs back to their best, while jockey Ryan Mania did just as well to overcome a slow start and secure a first win for Scotland, since 2007.

"We got done everywhere, and weren't quick enough to go early," Ryan said. "I was pushing from a fair way out but luckily it turned into a stamina test and he's got plenty of that.  Coming into the last I thought he was pumping iron." Ryan is now set to miss the last day of Cheltenham after being handed an eight-day ban by the whip review committee.

Explaining his purchase, Scott thought Benson had very good back form. A few wind issues were prevalent, but all were controllable. He looks amazing now – Sandy is very good at bringing these horses back and reviving them.



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An army bomb squad carried out a controlled explosion of a Second World War bomb in the car park of the Hereford racecourse. The Ministry of Defence said a 29mm Spigot Mortar, an anti-tank weapon, was found in nearby Aylesbrook Road.

An Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team attended at the request of West Mercia Police and cordoned off the area. After residents were evacuated, the army team conducted a controlled explosion in the racecourse car park. The bomb wasn't found on our site, but rather in a local housing estate that backs Hereford car park

In 2016, around 100 people spent the night at Bath racecourse after police set up a 300-metre exclusion zone around a 500lb Second World War explosive.

This was unearthed by contractors using a digger at the Royal High School in the Lansdown area, approximately a mile and a half from the racecourse.