McCain and Gillard land 140-1 Bangor treble as Alsakib stars

Donald McCain and Theo Gillard turned Bangor-on-Dee into their own showcase with a 140-1 treble, and the most eye-catching part was not just the price but the variety of the wins. Alsakib, They Want Me and Speed Davis all scored in different ways, underlining a stable that is firing on several fronts rather than relying on one type of runner.

Alsakib set the tone in the 2m1½f Broxton Gates Novices’ Hurdle, making every yard of the running and beating Senator by six lengths. Sent off at 11/4, he looked immediately at home over hurdles, a sharp follow-up to a Flat career in which he won five of 16 starts for Andrew Balding. Senator, the 1/1 favourite, could not get close enough to threaten the winner, while Tunisya finished tenth, more than 95 lengths adrift, and Kevin Brogan received a 14-day suspension for failing to obtain the best possible placing.

They Want Me then kept the momentum rolling in division one of the 2m3½f handicap hurdle, where the 15-8 favourite Crack Ops was put firmly in his place. McCain’s runner powered clear to win by ten lengths, making the margin look as convincing as the market move suggested. By that stage, Bangor already looked like a track the pair had seized by the scruff of the neck.

Speed Davis completed the treble in the 2m7f32yd Overton Handicap Hurdle at 16:42, staying on strongly after getting to the front two out to beat Tiger Orchid by four lengths. The eight-year-old gelding was 9/1 and was ending a 141-day wait since his previous success at Musselburgh on 28 November 2025. In a day packed with different kinds of performance, his effort provided the reminder that experience still counts when a race opens up late.

The bigger significance was what the treble said about McCain’s Bangor operation. He is now just one winner short of 250 at the Welsh track, where his strike-rate stands at 19%, and Racing TV’s course guide has long pointed out that front-runners can be hard to peg back on this left-handed, mostly flat track, especially on good ground or firmer. Bangor-on-Dee first hosted racing in 1859 and horses still race on virtually the same course, which gave McCain and Gillard’s clean sweep a fittingly old-school backdrop. For a stable already operating at a high level there, this was the kind of across-the-card domination that marks a yard in full flow.