Veteran trainer Barry Hills celebrated his 68th birthday by saddling La Cucaracha to win the Stanleybet Cammidge Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday.

The Lambourn handler had been out of luck on the first two days of the Lincoln meeting, but he rarely leaves Town Moor empty-handed and so it proved once again as the lightly-raced filly won in good style to earn a step up to Group Two company.

Michael Hills brought La Cucaracha with a powerful run down the outside in the six-furlong Listed contest to beat The Kiddykid and Look Here's Carol by half a length and a length.

The 16-1 winner has been plagued by injury problems and was overcoming a long absence from the track to score.

''She's a good filly and always has been,'' the trainer said, ''but she's had a lot of problems.

''She won her two races very easily at two but couldn't run again, which was a shame because I was going to run her in the Queen Mary.

''In her last race at Windsor last year she didn't stride out at all and when we scanned her we found a problem, so she never ran again.

''She had a stress fracture and she hadn't run for 313 days before today.

''She's got a lot of ability and a lot of speed. She travelled well but she was very backward in her coat and I thought the run would do her good.

''Hopefully we'll have a clean run with her this year and she can progress and go for the Duke Of York Stakes at York.''

Counsel's Opinion took the Konica Minolta Doncaster Shield after being given a very polished ride by George Baker.

Compton Bolter made the early running in the 12-furlong conditions event with Counsel's Opinion held up going well on the inside.

The leader drifted off the rails at the two-furlong marker and Baker kicked Counsel's Opinion through the gap to take a definite advantage.

Although his lead was being eroded close home, the 9-2 chance held on by a neck and a short head from the rallying Compton Bolter and Lochbuie.

A winner at Lingfield in February, Counsel's Opinion was well beaten in the Winter Derby back there last time.

His trainer Chris Wall said: ''He wasn't particularly favoured by the weights today but things worked out nicely for him, which they hadn't done last time.

''They went very slowly and he got stuck at the back and he couldn't get going at all.

''I thought we might have the same problem today, but he got a lovely run up the rail. They just went a nice pace and once he gets to the front he takes a bit of passing.

''He keeps on improving year on year and the older he gets, the better he's getting. That's two he's won this time, which isn't bad for an eight-year-old.

''After beating those he's going to be more or less out of handicaps, except the very top ones. We had the City And Suburban on the agenda but we might get rated out of that."

Solent (7-2) was clipped to 50-1 from 66-1 by totesport for the UltimatePoker.com 2000 Guineas after finishing fast to take the Mitsubishi Diamond Vision Conditions Stakes by a neck from Leo's Lucky Star.