Racing: Vital Statistics helps Elsworth to double

Vital Statistics lowered the colours of the previously unbeaten Wid in the Listed Dick Poole Fillies' Stakes at Salisbury yesterday. The improving juvenile had finished fourth behind the odds-on favourite at Newmarket in June but stayed on better up the Salisbury hill to score by half a length at odds of 100-30.

David Elsworth said: "She has improved and was a hell of a price if you are a punter. There was no pace when she was beaten at Newmarket and she kicked herself in the stalls last time at Ascot.She is in the Cheveley Park Stakes and that would be a possibility."

Elsworth and Vital Statistics' jockey, John Egan, notched a quick double when Wunderwood got the better of a battle with Collier Hill in the Persian Punch Stakes. In a race in which the memorable battling qualities associated with the horse it honours were displayed, the leading protagonists went at it tooth and nail for the final three furlongs.

The pair were inseparable through the closing stages, even though Collier Hill twice appeared to be struck with Egan's whip, and just a neck separated them at the line.

"Wunderwood will not run until he is dispatched to Australia for the Melbourne Cup," Elsworth said.