brumous

The Upper Lambourn trainer has had a lean spell since Brumous struck at Folkestone in mid-December, and it was the six-year-old who came to the rescue by doing the business again.

In what had appeared to be a competitive maiden event that would throw up a number of future winners, Brumous jumped like an old hand and picked up well on the run-in to score by a comfortable seven lengths.

Aspell completed a good afternoon when guiding the Oliver Sherwood-trained 16-1 chance Brumous to a seven-length success in the betfredcasino.com Maiden Hurdle.

Key statFourty Acers, Brumous and Principe Azzurro are all returning to the track after more than 200 days off, but all have won after a similar break in the past

Brumous (3.2) and Alexanderthegreat (2.24) were never going to get to grips with the winner up the home straight, but still ran well and should be followed in a slightly lower grade next time.

Progressive novice Brumous takes on some significantly more experienced rivals, including David Pipe's veteran duo Iris Bleu and Iznogoud.

OLIVER SHERWOOD'S team are in good heart right now and the Lambourn trainer made it five wins in the past fortnight when completing a double with Caribou and Brumous, both ridden by Leighton Aspell.

There was another long-priced winner in the two-and-three-quarter-mile handicap hurdle, in which the 16-1 chance Extra Smooth, ridden by Wayne Hutchinson and trained by Chris Beal-by, scored by seven lengths from top-weight Brumous.

Brumous, successful in a maiden hurdle at Folkestone and a novice event at Leicester on his last two starts, has to carry joint-top weight on his handicap debut.