PLANS to retire Random Harvest are now on hold after the veteran 14-year-old chaser showed his younger rivals a clean pair of heels in the £20,000 Durham National at Sedgefield on Saturday.

Mary Reveley is by far and away the most successful trainer at the course over the past five years and Random Harvest hardly saw another rival as he made virtually every yard of the running to claim the three-and-half-mile John Smith's-sponsored marathon, Sedgefield's richest race of the season.

Winning jockey Alan Dempsey was in no mood to take prisoners, shooting straight into a ten-length lead as soon as the starter had got the seven-runner field underway.

"His owner Chris Buckley is in Portugal and there had been thoughts of retiring Random Harvest, but I don't know about that now," said Mrs Reveley.

"I bought him for 9,000 guineas as a three-year-old at the Fairyhouse Derby Sale in Ireland and his legs are as good as the day he came to the yard. Although a lot of my horses have been wrong this season, strangely enough I've never had him better," added Mary, also victorious earlier on in the day with Hunters' Creek.

It was a tenth career victory for Random Harvest, who has bagged a few pounds short of £100,000 in win and place prize-money on his 53 starts to date.

The other feature race on the card, the £8,000 John Wade Skip Hire Premier Selling Handicap Hurdle, which is one of the most valuable races of its' type in the north, went to Brush A King.

"I've had my eye on this race for a long time, he just can't go on the soft and today's faster conditions were ideal," said Pogson.

Brian Ellison ended a long losing spell over jumps stretching back to last September when Mana-Mou Bay won the opening Conditional Jockeys' Novices' Hurdle.

"This is his ground, we've been trying to hold onto him and it just hasn't been working," revealed Ellison, who went on to complete a 39-1 double when Untidy Girl took the Mares' Only Hurdle.

As the total of 16 non-runners from 62 entries suggests, several trainers were unhappy with the state of the ground. Len Lungo was particularly critical: "It's firm and hard in places - like concrete," he said after withdrawing both of his runners.

Clerk of the course James Armstrong admitted the track had dried out considerably since the morning due to the warm weather. "We have been watering all week, but there isn't much grass cover because we race here so regularly," he said.

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