OXFORD specialist Jolly Poacher again gained top marks when landing the Blanchford Gold Cup to take his tally to nine open race wins out of ten at the Stadium.

The Nick Colton-trained white and brindle hound, who won all three major local open races here last year, was not expected to beat hot favourite Pall Mall victor Ballymac Ace (4-5).

But once Chris Allsopp’s runner bit the dust soon after the start, Poacher took full advantage to outclass his field.

While owners Shane Lee and Mel Shorter were celebrating, Ace’s trainer Allsopp bem-oaned the fact that the trap two runner, Razl Dazldazl was seeded middle, but veered out of the boxes, sending Ace crashing.

The racing office defended the seeding of Razl Dazldazl although his comments in earlier races were middle to wide.

They have to rely to a certain extent on the honesty of trainers when they enter open races, and really it’s a no win situation for them.

Meanwhile, Poacher added another £1,000 to his Sandy Lane winnings and now heads to Henlow as his next target.

A great night’s racing got off to a flier when Bob Hannan’s Gangster McHugh landed his fourth win from five starts, before the Maurice Massey- trained Kisskissbangdang, bounced back to his brilliant best in the Blanchford Sprint posting 15.01 for the two bends.

Monmore trainer Allsopp took the next two opens with Daughter Peg and Ballymac Rumble, before Poachers big race triumph, and in the final race, new trainer Richard Baker opened his account here with Home Taylor who landed the Picts Lane Trophy.

Anyone who backed Michael Peterson to retain his Trainers Championship at Oxford will surely be queueing up at the bookies to collect their money.

Because current leader Paddy Curtin leaves for Monmore at the end of the month, and Peterson is only nine winners adrift, but 46 ahead of his next nearest rival, he looks home and dry.

Peterson was leading trainer last month with 25 winners to bring his tally to 210.

How they stand

Curtin (24 winners last month) 219, Peterson (25) 210, A Kibble (16) 164, T Magnasco (15) 149, M Massey (20), 128, G Hepden (12) 126, N Colton (11) 121, T Kibble (11) 116, B Hannan (20) 107, R Bicknell (12) 99, S Rayner (5) 77, P Clarke (8) 71, T Atkins (7) 69, J Mayo (11) 62, I Wills (10), R Yeates (5) 57.