Hayley Turner putting best foot forward

Turner has been out of action with a broken ankle since August but earlier in the summer she had ridden both Dream Ahead and Margot Did to Group 1 victories. Her first ride back is on Brendan Powell’s Copper Falls in the Nursery. She then rides two for Conor Dore, Opus Maximus and Lucky Art.

Writing on her website, Turner said: “I’m very much looking forward to my first rides back on Tuesday. Conor is very close to reaching his target of 30 winners in a calendar year, a massive achievement from a chap who has little over 10 horses in training. I love riding for him, he really knows his stuff.”

Saturday’s honours at Ascot again belonged to Paul Nicholls and Ruby Walsh, highlighted by another effortless performance from Big Buck’s.

Victory in the Lough Derg Long Walk Hurdle was his 14th in a row, surpassing Bula’s record from the 1970s, and it took the giant to within touching distance of Sir Ken’s mark of 16 in the 1950s.

Dynaste was the only obstacle to the 3-10 favourite but he could only put up a challenge until the second-last and faded thereafter, by which time Big Buck’s was unleashed to finish eight lengths clear of Five Dream and Restless Harry.

Nicholls said: “He’s all class. He looked fat at Newbury, and I thought he was a lot fitter today. The girl who rides him every day thinks he’s better than ever this year, and I hope he will continue to be hard to beat. We’ll have to see, but I wouldn’t have thought he would run again until Cheltenham.”

Nicholls and Walsh combined twice more, with The Minack (11-4 joint- favourite) taking advantage of a terrible mistake by Vino Griego at the second-last fence in the GL Events Owen Brown Silver Cup. Nicholls said: “I’ve been training him for the Welsh National, but the ground was so bad at the last meeting that we thought we would aim him here instead. I suppose he could have an entry in the Grand National.”

Meanwhile, Boston Bob – owned by Scottish tycoon Graham Whylie – looked a star in the making when running out a most impressive winner of the Grade One Navan Novice Hurdle for Willie Mullins and Walsh yesterday.

Odds-on favourite Mount Benbulben, trained by Gordon Elliott, tried to make all under Paul Carberry but jumped right at many of the obstacles, giving away ground.

Also at Navan, Zaidpour had no trouble landing the odds in the Tara Hurdle. An impressive winner of the Royal Bond as a novice, the 1-3 favourite was an expensive failure in two Grade Ones after that, before finishing seventh in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

He looked like his old self and the money came pouring in for him in this Grade Two event. Mullins’ charge tracked Prima Vista into the straight before flying the last, and Ruby Walsh only needed to nudge him out to beat the outsider Benash by 10 lengths.