BLEWBURY trainer Eve Johnson Houghton gained the most valuable success of her career for the second time in less than a week when Scarlet Dragon roared home in the Godolphin Flying Start Old Rowley Cup at Newmarket.

Just six days after Accidental Agent claimed the first prize of £81,165 in the £150,000 Tattersalls October Auction Stakes at Headquarters, Scarlet Dragon topped that by picking up £87,150 in the mile-and-a-half heritage handicap.

Apprentice Hollie Doyle brought the three-year-old with a well-timed run to beat New Cadelonia by a length and three-quarters.

Johnson Houghton said: “It’s happy days. This little horse has danced every dance and not missed a trick. He’s not very big, but he’s all heart.”

Emerging Force sparked Cheltenham Festival dreams for Sparsholt trainer Harry Whittington by making a winning debut over fences as racing returned to Hereford following an absence of almost four years.

The six-year-old came home 14 lengths clear of Rainy City in a beginners’ chase under Gavin Sheehan.

Whittington said: “I’d be surprised if he didn’t end up a 10lb better chaser than hurdler. That would put him in the mix for the RSA maybe or the National Hunt (Chase).”

Meanwhile, East Ilsley trainer Hughie Morrison, by his own admission, struggled to get the best out of Sweet Selection last season, but the step up to marathon distances has proved the making of the filly as she showed by claiming the Betfred Cesarewitch at Newmarket.

The four-year-old had already won three times over stamina-sapping trips this term, before she enjoyed her finest hour on Saturday when taking the prestigious two-and-a-quarter-mile heritage handicap by three lengths from First Mohican under Silvestre de Sousa.

The 7-1 shot earned her connections a bumper payday with the £155,625 first prize.

And Morrison said: “I’m a shocking judge. I spent the whole of last year thinking she was a mile-and-a-quarter filly.

“This time last year she was rated 65 and had only won once.”

The card had opened with a game success for Kassia, from Mick Channon’s West Ilsley stables, in the visionsport.com EBF Stallions Boadicea Fillies’ Stakes.

Graham Lee’s mount knuckled down to collar Gravity Flow by a head in the six-furlong Listed contest.