Peter Moore at Lingfield Wednesday 7th January 2025

Last year’s all-weather champion trainer Tony Carroll, has already started the year in fine fettle and made it eight victories this month already after Gogo Yubari recording her fifth success at the track in the 5f handicap under Cieren Fallon at Lingfield on Wednesday.

With the winners flowing already, things couldn’t get any better for Carroll “We’re trying hard to retain our title. It’s just a matter of keeping the horses in good form, but things are going well. The horses are in form and so is the stable.”

It was not just the leading trainer title that made 2025 a special year. For the first time in his 30 years with a licence, Carroll surpassed the £1 million mark in prize-money.

“It’s extremely buzzy behind the scenes, but it has been all year. We had 128 winners last year – it’s been tremendous,” he added.

Cieren Fallon completed a double on the card after the well backed Giles Glory came through late to land the 7f handicap for trainer Joseph Parr, after the gelding was making his debut on the Polytrack in a first time visor and tongue strap combination.

Arc Zoosve made it two wins in the course of four days after just managing to hold on by a head under Rob Havlin in the longest race of the day, the opening 2m handicap.

A week ago at the course, Accrual was beaten in a 6f handicap. Today, the five-year-old went one better when scoring by one and three quarter lengths from No Return.

Space Invasion lost his maiden tag at the third time of asking after coming from the back of the field to take the 1m maiden by half a length under Callum Shepherd.

Jockey Harry Vigors celebrated his second winner under rules after steering Blue Empress to victory in the 7f handicap.

Despite being very slowly away, the four-year-old finished the race well to score by one and a quarter lengths.