Racing: Dunwoody is the champion again

RICHARD Dunwoody fended off a final flourish from Adrian Maguire to secure the National Hunt champion jockey's title in the dying strides of the season at Market Rasen last night.

Maguire rode the first two winners at the meeting to claw back Dunwoody's lead effectively to three as the prolonged duel reached its climax after his arch rival had seemed to put the contest beyond doubt by riding a short-priced treble at Stratford in the afternoon.

Maguire left Stratford after the third race for a full book of mounts at the Lincolnshire track, but would have had to score on all six to claim the crown. Dunwoody's retaining trainer, Martin Pipe, fired off the three Stratford winners that allowed the reigning champion to put the prize beyond his opponent's reach at the last.

Dunwoody felt that a draw would have been a fair result. 'If I'd just been beaten like this, I'd have been gutted and I know how Adrian must feel,' he said. 'There's only one result that would have been a proper one and that's a draw. Nobody's deserved to be a loser.'

Maguire's flying start to the season, while Pipe and Dunwoody were in the doldrums, enabled him to establish an advantage of 41 winners at the top of the table in early January. But a fortnight's suspension for Maguire, a result of a whip offence at Warwick on 15 January, enabled Dunwoody to regain the initiative and to cut the lead to just two in early March.

Maguire was able to build up his momentum again when the rivalry between the two boiled over and Dunwoody was found guilty of intentional interference against one of Maguire's mounts at Nottingham. An ensuing two-week suspension caused the champion to miss the Cheltenham Festival.

Dunwoody, however, rallied again to overhaul Maguire on 14 May as his challenger appeared to run out of ammunition. But Maguire achieved a remarkable hat-trick at Uttoxeter last Thursday to keep up the pressure to the very end.

Dunwoody was spurred to 198 winners, including Miinnehoma in the Grand National, by the struggle with Maguire, who scored 194 victories. The last-minute calculations were complicated by the fact that Dunwoody will lose one winner from his tally from his through disqualification at a Jockey Club inquiry in a month's time.

Lester Piggott won the Group Two Gallinule Stakes at The Curragh yesterday on the Richard Hannon-trained Right Win, the 11-8 favourite. The four-year-old colt, whose long- term aim this season is the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in the autumn, is now unbeaten in three outings this year.

(Photograph omitted)