Nigel Hawke continues hot streak at Ludlow

Speredek completed his hat-trick in style in Ludlow's feature Bromfield Sand & Gravel Handicap Chase to continue a fine month for trainer Nigel Hawke.Wins at Taunton and Sandown had seen Hawke forced to up his six-year-old in class, but as was the case throughout the day, he did not have many rivals to beat.Sean Bowen set out to make all and while he had company from De Faoithesdream for the first circuit, that one was a spent force in the home straight and the 10-11 favourite had 11 lengths to spare over Workbench.Hawke, a Grand National-winning jockey on Seagram in 1991, was saddling his eighth winner of the month at a strike-rate of over 30 per cent.Gino Trail was sent off the 1-10 favourite to win the Alfa Aggregate Products Novices' Chase and despite jumping left throughout, Kerry Lee's charge had little more than an exercise round under Jamie Moore."He was 1-10 and the hardest part was getting him down to the start, it wasn't much of a race," said Moore."He's a 10-year-old but he's not had much racing, he's had more races this year than in the whole of his career."That's three he's won this season now and he's also been second to good horses like Zamdy Man, Buveur D'Air and Flying Angel. Kerry's placed him well."He qualifies for veterans' races now, so that could be an option."Dan and Harry Skelton are another operation who place their horses to best effect and they were rewarded with a double.Shantou Rock (2-9 favourite) won the two-mile novice hurdle as his price suggested he would"He likes to get on with it. Things didn't go to plan at Southwell last time, but that was good today," said Harry Skelton."He likes to take you along and he ran with the choke out over the first three, but then he calmed down."He's not achieved much there but he'll make a very nice chaser next year."Whatduhavtoget (11-8 favourite) was a 16-length winner in the mares' novices' hurdle in the well-known Highclere Thoroughbred Racing colours.The 14-year-old Pearlysteps (7-2) was a popular winner of the hunter chase for Henry Daly and is now set for retirement."I'd like to think that's it. It doesn't get any better than that, winning at your local track with a 14-year-old who is owned and bred by the chairman of the track," said Daly."It's a great moment to stop, he's won 10 races - not many do that."On a day when only 33 horses were in action across seven races, Ludlow's general manager Bob Davies was left scratching his head."It's very disappointing, we put on good prize-money all the time," Davies - another former Grand National-winning rider - told Racing UK."You can understand horses coming out at the overnight stage when you have an inch of rain before declarations as they might have been expecting better ground."What was disappointing is that we only got 107 entries for £72,000 prize-money and Chepstow got 170 entries for £35,000 so you wonder why we do it all the time."We spread our prize-money evenly so we don't have one big race and the rest worth nothing."Once you've done the programme book you don't really want to change races as trainers can plan a long way in advance."Easter can be a bug bear as when that moves so do the fixtures, but you wonder sometimes what you have to do."But Daly said: "I see Bob was moaning about the trainers not running - I would suggest Bob needs to look at the programme himself and get his programme right. Two mares' races, running a 0-150 two-mile chase between Cheltenham and Aintree."If I had one rated 150 I think I'd run it in the Grand Annual, not at Ludlow."