TIM VAUGHAN’S string are showing signs of springing back into life – a fact highlighted by the easy victory of Midnight Diamond in the Roflow Handicap Hurdle at Sedgefield yesterday.

Vaughan sent the eight-yearold on a 558-mile round trip from his Vale of Glamorgan base and it paid off with a 40-length success.

Tom Scudamore set out to make all on the 9-2 shot and never saw another rival on his return to the smaller obstacles after an unsuccessful spell over fences.

Vaughan would usually get such an easy winner back out as quickly as possible but a minor injury will prevent that.

“We thought he’d rack up a sequence over fences the way he worked at home, but things did not quite work out of him,” said Vaughan. “Thankfully, we’ve given him a little break and he’s done it as we anticipated really.

I’m delighted with him.

“I’m just stood in the vets with the poor horse, though, as he’s just having a few stitches in a little cut, otherwise he would have been out again this week.

“He probably won’t run for a month now, we’ll have to see what the handicapper does. We’ll stick to hurdles I think.

“It’s strange how they are back in form. Last year we had a lull where they weren’t running right and we changed a lot of things in the summer.

‘‘This year the horses are looking very healthy and every horse we thought would run well has.

It’s harder in the winter, your horse can run as well as ever and still only finish third.”

Jumping was the name of the game in the Collins Seafoods Maiden Chase as Jim Dreaper’s Irish raider Radharc Na Mara came home in splendid isolation.

Donald McCain’s Kalulushi was the first one to depart at the 16th fence when in with a chance down the back straight.

A fence later John Wade’s Riskier came down and at the next Howard Johnson’s 4-7 favourite Silent Cliche departed, leaving the 7-2 chance to come home 31 lengths clear of Mansonien L’As.

“She was placed in a couple of point-to-points, but it’s so competitive in Ireland at the moment,” said Dreaper.

“The first problem in Ireland is getting a run in a maiden chase. There’s over 20 runners in most of them.

“Thomas (Dreaper) has ridden in the north of England for years and said that this was usually quite an ordinary race.

“She’s not going to be a star, but she tries very hard.

Her jumping won her the race today.”

McCain will consider options for Charminster after the fiveyear- old opened his account over hurdles in tremendous style.

A point-to-point winner and also successful in a bumper, Charminster trotted up by 17 lengths in the John Wade Skip Hire “National Hunt” Novices’ Hurdle at the Durham track on his second start over timber.

“He’s bolted up, but I don’t know where we’ll we go with him,’’ said the Cholmondeley trainer from Leicester, where he was on the mark with the equally impressive Tornado Bob ten minutes later.

McCain said: “I wasn’t disappointed he got beat at Hereford.

Him and the filly of Nicky Henderson’s (Whoops A Daisy) sprinted down the straight there on bad ground.

“They put 17 lengths between them and the third.

“We’ll see. It’s just a case of giving the horses a run at the moment.

“We’ve got to find novice hurdles to run them in.”

Sue Smith’s Cranky Corner (4-1) may not have won by as far as those three but she will have been happy with his chasing debut in the digibet.com Handicap Chase.

Seventh in the Champion Bumper behind Dunguib a couple of years ago, he has failed to reach the heights expected of him previously so chasing could be his game.