KEMPTON Park was the setting last Saturday for another big race success for Kings Caple trainer Venetia Williams and also for her up-and-coming jockey Sam Thomas as the pair carried off the £50,000 Tote Scoop6 Lanzarote Hurdle with the win of Limerick Boy.

Nineteen-year-old Thomas, the son of an Abergavenny schoolteacher, has been taking the conditional riding ranks by storm this season, writes Graham Saveker.

And he proved his worth in a no-holds barred finish to the Lanzarote Hurdle as he repelled the challenge of Perouse, ridden by Ruby Walsh, on the run-in to take the sponsored prize by a neck at the odds of 10/1.

Earlier in the afternoon Thomas and Williams had sprung another surprise when they took the two-mile five-furlong Handicap Hurdle on Cotopaxi, scoring a length and a quarter win at even bigger odds - 14/1.

Williams then made it an across the cards treble by scoring at Wetherby with Meggie's Gamble who confirmed favouritism in the novice hurdle in the hands of Alan O'Keefe.

Madley-born jockey Richard Johnson was not to be outdone in the weekend racing action as he partnered the veteran Irish Chaser Florida Pearl to an 8/1 success in the Normans Grove Chase at Fairyhouse, defeating current Grand National favourite Rinci Ri by two lengths.