'This has been the plan and it's all come off' - more Emmet Mullins magic as Slate Lane wins £125,000 handicap hurdle

Who would be a bookmaker when Emmet Mullins comes to town? The trainer who has made merry with Noble Yeats, The Shunter and many others did it once again with Slate Lane.

A plan hatched when his new recruit took a £3,812-to-the-winner maiden hurdle at Cartmel in June paid off spectacularly as the 11-4 favourite completed a four-timer in the £125,000 Betfair-backed Stayers' Handicap Hurdle.

After the five-year-old had made all under Donagh Meyler, the trainer said: "Since he crossed the line at Cartmel in a maiden hurdle this has been the plan. It was about getting here on a workable mark.

"It's all come off. Everything was good. I thought there mightn't be much pace, I said to Donagh to line up wide and see how it's going to unfold and left it up to him. He was wise to him and he did the right thing. He's a very straightforward horse, I know it looks like he's running free but as long as he keeps winning we're happy enough."

The only negative was the cut on a leg that Slate Lane returned with. Mullins missed the presentation to be with the horse and owner Paul Byrne said: "That's a little bit worrying. Emmet is quite worried about that and he's followed the horse down, he didn't like it."

Kam delight

Prolific winning trainer Fergal O'Brien landed his biggest success of the season when Kamsinas took the Grade 2 Betfair-sponsored Newton Novices' Hurdle.

O'Brien has won more jumps races than anyone else in Britain this season, but he captured his largest prize of the campaign when the six-year-old took the £50,000 contest by a length and a quarter under Paddy Brennan.

The 16-5 shot, an impressive winner at Worcester first time out over hurdles, had finished second in the same company at Cheltenham last month and O'Brien said: "We were very hopeful coming here. He'd been working well and I thought he was very unlucky at Cheltenham, he got blocked coming down the hill and he ran on very well.

"What I loved about it was even though he'd had a fair old bang and a rough ride he threw himself over the last. He's got a great will to win. He loves being a racehorse."

Kamsinas: "He loves to be a racehorse"Credit: John Grossick

Brennan pledged his share of the prize to the fund supporting injured jockey Graham Lee.

The rider said: "Every penny I earned there is going to Graham Lee. It's not trying to be a hero, it's for Becky and his two kids."

Milestone for Skeltons

Dan and Harry Skelton scored their 1,000th win together when Grey Dawning got his revenge on Sefton Novices' Hurdle winner Apple Away in the £50,000 Betfair Exchange Graduation Chase.

The 2-1 shot scored his first win over fences by nine and a half lengths from Grand National third Gaillard Du Mesnil, with the Aintree Grade 1 scorer only third.

"He was a good horse last season, he won a Graded race and we saved him for Aintree, we didn't want to overrace him as a novice hurdler, and he tipped up down the back," trainer Dan Skelton said of the winner.

"I think he'd have gone very close to winning that day so I was particularly irritated. We've got to try and put that right as a chaser and win a big Graded race where we can."

Skelton, who admits his string has not been quite in peak form, was just as glad to see Real Stone run away with the 2m½f handicap chase.

The 15-8 favourite took the five-runner contest by 20 lengths under Harry Skelton, and the trainer said: "We've probably got a few good days in this horse as he didn't do a lot of racing as a youngster, but under pressure he does go pretty violently left so that rules out Ascot and Kempton."

Read these next:

Graham Lee moved to hospital closer to home but will remain in spinal unit 'for the foreseeable future' 

We are sleepwalking our way towards the ridiculous fiasco of a walkover in a Grade 1 

Get set for the jumps! Join Members' Club now with 50% off 

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.