Adrian Maguire took the riding honours at Towcester today with a 111½-1 double on Musical Sling and Ground Nut.
Maguire made the best of Musical Sling's fine jumping to dictate matters in the Millennium Dawn Novices' Chase and the combination galloped all the way to the line as one by one his rivals either exited or became desperately tired.
Owner Terry Warner confessed to landing a nice touch after the Philip Hobbs-trained seven-year-old beat Dom Beltrano by 21 lengths.
Maguire was in even better form on top weight Ground Nut, who was returning from a 651-day absence in the Welcome To the New Century Handicap Chase.
Up the straight Ground Nut looked sure to be beaten by Sursum Corda but Maguire refused to give in and his mount wore down his rival in the final strides to score by a neck.
The Irishman earned the praises of Ground Nut's trainer Bob Buckler, who said: "That was a real gutsy effort and Adrian was brilliant on him.
"The horse has had leg problems and after a long lay-off like that you always wonder if they'll come back but he loves this soft ground and the stiff track here really suits him."
There was another dour battling performance when Galen outstayed Royal Tommy by three lengths in the Tote www.totalbet.com Handicap Chase.
Jim Crowley's mount was clear at the last after making a bad blunder two out, but he was desperately tired on the run-in, allowing the placed horses to narrow the gap.
Galen's trainer Sue Smith is mindful that her charge had a hard race today and she said: "He certainly wouldn't want to be carrying any more weight than this in testing ground and it's obvious that he's had a hard race.
"Jim did really well to sit tight at the second last and I think it was typical of the horse that he idled on the run-in."
There could have been no more fitting start to the day than the victory of Billy Buckskin from stablemate Come On Eilish in the Welcome To The Millennium Conditional Jockeys' Selling Handicap Hurdle.
The horses are trained locally by John Upson, whose assistant Tom Byrne has a quarter share in the winner.
Billy Buckskin has had some blood vessel problems and Byrne said: "We gave him something to stop that which has obviously done the trick and the way he'd been working with Young Radical (a winner twice this season) you'd have had to fancy him today."
Those who took short odds about Nadisha in the New Year Juvenile Novices' Hurdle were left with red faces when Lady Coldunell pounced between the last two flights and ran on strongly under Dean Gallagher to beat the 4-9 favourite by three and a half lengths.
Trainer Neville Callaghan only has two or three hurdlers this winter but he expects Lady Coldunell to pick up more successes on better ground than this.
One of the nicest horses on display was Robert Alner's Mr Timbrology who was always travelling cosily for Andrew Thornton before holding on from Dark Crusader by a length and a half in the Year 2000 National Hunt Novices' Hurdle.
Alner said of his winner: "He's a lovely horse and every inch a chaser in the making. I bought him from Tom Costello and I wouldn't want to run him many more times over hurdles. The reason I brought him here is that the one thing he does is stay."
There was another odds-on shot overturned in the Levy Board Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race when Mistletoe had no answer to the Martin Pipe-trained newcomer Intox III and Rodi Greene.
