MONEY really does talk for the big-spending husband and wife partnership of Graham and Andrea Wylie, who were on the mark with three winners from four runners at Catterick yesterday.

Together with trainer Howard Johnson and jockey Graham Lee, the Wylies have cemented a formidable alliance, ensuring they get a reasonable return on their multimillion pound investment in the sport.

Team Wylie leapt straight into action for the opening Peter Pan Novices Hurdle, although Zeitgeist, bought for a cool 140,000 guineas, made extremely heavy weather of justifying 1-3 favouritism.

The ex-Luca Cumani trained gelding, fifth in the 2005 Ebor at York, was backed as if defeat was out of the question.

But when it came to showing what he could do, the expensive purchase clearly hadn't read the pre-race script.

"That wasn't very impressive and he was all out to win. He hung left so we'll get him checked once back at home to see if anything is wrong," reported Graham, leaving Andrea to give Zeitgeist a hearty pat down the neck.

In direct contrast to Zeitgeist, Turnstile hardly shifted from second gear to record a facile victory in division two of the contest.

The rangy grey, bred by Her Majesty the Queen and snapped up from Richard Hannon, clearly has a serious future over the sticks and could even turn out to be Cheltenham Festival material come March.

"Turnstile is going to make a smashing chaser in years to come and should also be much better on a more galloping track. He's got a lovely long stride and hurdles very fluently," said Graham.

Motive provided the third leg of the combined Wylie, Johnson, and Lee 9-2 treble, defying top-weight to collar Andre Chenier in the final 50 yards of the Aladdin Handicap Hurdle.

The 2-1 market leader almost threw away the spoils by veering violently left-handed at the second last flight.

It was a hairy moment for Lee, who sat tight and deftly straightened Motive in the nick of time to launch a decisive late lunge.

Keith Reveley's decision to switch Rambling Minster from hurdles to fences paid handsome dividends when the eight-year-old claimed the Dick Whittingham Beginners Chase.

"He was a very decent horse over hurdles, but I think this will be his game. He jumped lovely and that was super. I'll give him a bit of a break because really Rambling Minster is a spring horse and could do with better ground," explained Keith.

The Reveley stable were later denied a double by Good Outlook, who just held the determined challenge of Welcome To Unos.

"It took us six months of hard work to get Good Outlook to the track, but he's now had three runs in quick succession and done nothing wrong," said winning trainer, Richard Guest.

Having had such a good day, proceedings nearly ended in disaster for the Wylies and Graham Lee by virtue of Unexplored taking an ugly fall when in contention for the closing Jack & The Beanstalk Novices Hurdle.

Unexplored lay prostrate on the ground for a heart-stopping few minutes on the landing side of the final obstacle, before happily both he and Lee got to their feet and walked away unscathed.

The race went to French import, Nine de Sivola, maintaining the recent superb form of Ferdy Murphy's yard.

l TURNSTILE was amongst the New Year National Hunt list of ten-to-follow horses compiled by Janus (Colin Woods) and published in last Thursday's copy of The Northern Echo.

l BURNT OAK won Cheltenham's valuable Listed National Hunt Flat race to provide Middleham's Chris Fairhurst with a first-ever training success at the course.