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WATERSMEET IN COMMAND AT KEMPTON PARK AS HE BAGS SECOND FTQ

Fast Track Qualifiers
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21 February 2018

Watersmeet (Mark Johnston/Joe Fanning, 11/8) maintained his superb All-Weather record when taking the £25,000 32Red Conditions Race (7.15pm) over two miles at Kempton Park this evening, Wednesday, February 21. The Polytrack contest was the third of the four Marathon Fast-Track Qualifiers, with the winner guaranteed a free start in the £150,000 Betway All-Weather Marathon Championships over the same distance and surface at Lingfield Park on All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, March 30.   Tonight's victory was a second Fast-Track Qualifier success during the 2017/18 All-Weather Championships for Watersmeet, following his win at Wolverhampton on January 15. The seven-year-old grey son of Dansili has now won 11 times on an All-Weather surface from 21 starts. Tonight's victory was his first success at Kempton Park.   Watersmeet contested the Betway All-Weather Marathon Championships on Good Friday in 2017, finishing runner-up to Winning Story. Breaking from stall four, Watersmeet led from start to finish in tonight's contest. He faced a challenge from Evens favourite Lord George (James Fanshawe/Daniel Muscutt) quarter of a mile from home but kept finding more.   Lord George weakened entering the final furlong and it was Curbyourenthusiasm (David Simcock/Oisin Murphy, 8/1) who stayed on from off the pace to take second, a neck behind Watersmeet who won comfortably. Continuum (Peter Hedger/Tom Marquand, 100/1) was a further length and a quarter back in third. The winning time was 3m 25.19s.  Trainer Mark Johnston said: "Watersmeet had a bit in hand at the weights tonight and thankfully so it proved  "The plan is now to go straight to Good Friday with him. He was second on Good Friday last and the track at Lingfield suits him. If anything, Lingfield suits him better than Kempton. "He has all the credentials. Touch wood, he can stay as he is for the next month or so as we head to Good Friday. "He is in the form of his life."

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