Investec Click & Invest Mile Handicap MEDBURN LEAVES HEDGER IN DREAMLAND

[twocol_one][dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Peter Hedger-trained Medburn Dream survived a stewards’ enquiry to land the £50,000 Investec Click & Invest Mile Handicap at Epsom Downs under Franny Norton. Always prominent, the 5/1 shot hung towards the stands’ side rail in the home straight, coming across David O’Meara’s Mythical Madness (11/2). However, Medburn Dream kept on gamely in the closing stages to score by a length and a quarter in the extended mile contest.

78-year-old Hedger, based in Hook, Hampshire, started out as a racehorse transporter before taking out a training licence in 1989. He has saddled four winners at Epsom from seven runners in the last five years. Hedger said: “I said to a lot of people that I really fancied this horse today and I didn’t want to have egg on my face. Medburn Dream is unbeaten in two starts for Hedger having scored at Windsor on his debut for the yard earlier this year.

The Showcasing five-year-old hung right towards the stands’ rail in the closing [/twocol_one] [twocol_one_last]stages of the race, but won by a length and a quarter from Mythical Madness at odds of 5/1.

Norton said: “I was fairly confident that I would keep the race – I’m just a bit disappointed that I’ve got a three-day ban for it. My horse does hang right and I took Mythical Madness slightly off his line, but my horse was adamant that he was going there and rather than taking him off his stride, I just let him drift a little bit. He was always going to win and I was always clear of the second horse.

“When I had a look today, the rail was not as far our as I thought it would be. I felt it was too far to go over to the stands’ side. The aim was to go down the middle because felt it was better when I cantered down. This horse just hung to his right, so it was more accident than design.[/twocol_one_last]