EVAN Williams celebrated his 1,000th winner recently and plans are afoot to commemorate this with a race being named after him at Ffos Las on Thursday.

However, David Evans has accumulated over 1,700 winners in a career that is now into its fourth decade. The latest was his three-year-old filly Lets Go Lucky at Lingfield last Friday.

Having her first run in a claimer, and with visors applied for the first time, she also happened to be well in at the weights and her 6/5 starting price reflected this. She’s now won three of her nine races, so connections were fortunate she didn’t attract a claim after the race.

Evans’ strike rate in claimers over the last five years is 17% and in sellers it’s 22%. In ordinary handicaps it’s just 9%. A £1 bet on all of his runners in sellers in that period would have yielded a profit of £34.

On Friday’s Lingfield card another veteran handler, Milton Bradley, gained his second winner of 2020 when his sprinter Englishman scored for the first time on an all-weather surface. He won this easily, but his last success was back in May 2018 and his rating has sunk from 81 to 50 since then. It would be a surprise if he was to run up a sequence now he’s aged ten.

Stablemate Muraaqeb, who won six times last year, went down by a neck and a head at Kempton the next day. He could easily pick up the winning thread before long, especially if returned to his beloved Chelmsford, where his record is 1141212.

A new arrival in the Bradley stable is Moongazer, a four-year-old filly who won her debut twelve months ago for Charlie Hills. She was the 5/4 favourite that day and ran even better when placed in her next two outings. Unfortunately, something must have gone wrong with her since, and she fetched only 5,500 guineas at the sales. She’s having her first run for Bradley at Kempton this evening.

Ron Harris hasn’t had many runners so far this year, though one of the yard’s newer acquisitions is due to appear at Kempton this evening. Rectory Road was rated 83 when running third, beaten two and a half lengths, for Andrew Balding in a Class 2 handicap in October. The winner that day, Alrajaa, was scoring for the third time in a row, and has added one more since and now has a mark of 109. In hindsight the Balding horse had a very difficult task against him.

Soon afterwards, Rectory Road was sent to the sales, apparently to dissolve a partnership. Harris bought him for 30,000 guineas, and for that money he will be expecting to compete in some decent handicaps. Since then he’s had one outing down the field. His new owners will be hoping he shows a bit more today, in anticipation of bigger and better targets that lie ahead.

David Probert, who returned from a suspension on Monday, rides both Moongazer and Rectory Road.

Chepstow’s seven race card on Friday begins at 1.20. Admission is only £12 if booked in advance and it’s their last meeting for three weeks.