It was a great day for the Irish at Sedgefield yesterday with four Emerald Isle raiders successful.

John Carr played the major role by completing his first treble with Possible Gale, Innisfree and Quizzical, while his compatriot J J Lambe was on the mark with Supply And Fix.

Carr, who is based at Maynooth, near Dublin, had not even had as much as a double at the same meeting before, and after Quizzical - whose rider James Davies was cautioned for a whip offence - had got up on the line to beat Miniballist, by a short head in the John Smith's Extra Smooth Handicap Hurdle.

He said: "We would have been happy to have had one winner and a couple of seconds, so to have a treble is unbelievable - I had never had a winner at this course before.

"We are building another ten boxes and then we will have 40 horses in the yard. We have got some good ones, and what we try and do is sort them all out and come over here with the lesser ones."

Innisfree landed the Sedgefield Paddock Bookmakers Handicap Chase under conditional Keith Mercer, while Richard Johnson had the mount on Possible Gale in the John Wade For Equine Fibre And Rubber Selling Handicap Hurdle, after which Carr retained the gelding without a bid.

Lambe, who trains at Armagh, took his score in England and Scotland this season to nine when Supply And Fix made all the running to win the Oliver Wendels Memorial Novices' Hurdle in the hands of JP McNamara.

Lambe said: "Our aim is to win over £100,000 over here this season, and we are over halfway there."

Conditional jockey Colm Sharkey was suspended for seven days for not pulling up Sterling Guarantee quickly enough after the gelding had gone lame.

Graham Lee rode his sixth winner in four days when skillfully defying a scary time on the run-in on Micky Hammond's High Country on their way to victory in the Galaxy North East England Maiden Hurdle.

High Country was clear when he stumbled on landing and the bridle shot over his head leaving Lee with no control other than to sit still and hold tight onto the reins to prevent the bit slipping out of the gelding's mouth.

Hammond, saddling his third winner in four days, said of High Country, who was previously trained by Aidan O'Brien: "He proved a natural when we first schooled him over hurdles, and he should win again."

Pat Haslam's Red Flyer jumped well for Barry Keniry in the BP Cats Novices' Handicap Chase, taking up the running between the last two and staying on to pass the post with two lengths to spare over Now Then Sid.

Haslam's representative Peter Hedley, said: "He should have won a hurdle race last year, but his conditional jockey fell off when he was four lengths clear at the last at Newcastle."

* Coral have priced up Azamour as their even-money favourite to achieve back-to-back victories in the Baileys Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday week.

John Oxx's colt has landed the King George and Prince of Wales's Stakes this season, and just got the verdict over Norse Dancer in last year's renewal of the ten-furlong Group One.

Derby winner Motivator is the 5-2 next best ahead of Oratorio, his conqueror in the Eclipse, in what is expected to be a small-field affair.

''What the race lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality, and Azamour versus Motivator will be billed as one of the clashes of the season'', said Simon Clare, Coral Spokesman.

Baileys Irish Champion Stakes betting:

Coral: Evens Azamour, 5-2 Motivator, 9-2 Oratorio, 6-1 Powerscourt, 12-1 Norse Dancer