The £1.1-million All-Weather Championships Finals on Good Friday is the feature meeting of the season at Lingfield who race three times this week. Pic: Courtesy of ARC.

By Simon Jackson.

Lingfield on Wednesday continue the countdown towards the All-Weather Championships Finals when they stage a fast-track qualifier for the marathon championship race.

The 32Red Conditions Stakes, run over a distance just under two miles at one mile, seven furlongs and 169 yards, is the feature race on the first of three racedays this week at Lingfield who also race on Friday and Saturday (January 23 and 24).

A maximum of six runners are set to contest the £19,000 contest on Wednesday. The field includes 4-1 shot Dashing Star who is stepping back up in trip having not raced over this far since contesting the Group 3 Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot in 2013.

The winner is assured of a place in the £150,000 32Red Casino All-Weather Marathon over course and distance on Good Friday and Dashing Star’s trainer, David Elsworth, says the five-year-old is in good order ahead of his all-weather debut.

“Dashing Star is in good form,” Elsworth said. “I was thinking of running him over hurdles but the ground has been so bad that we thought we would give him a spin on the all-weather.

“He is going back up to two miles again but he settles well now and I don’t think it was the trip that beat him when he ran in the Queen’s Vase.

“He has gone close over a mile and six a couple of times and there is plenty of stamina on the dam side, so I would be hopeful that he will stay.”

Dashing Star will be partnered by Martin Harley for the first time in the qualifier, where the betting is headed by Anglophile (2-1). Triumphant (7-2), Castilo Del Diablo (5-1), Smoky Hill (8-1) and Uramazin (10-1) complete the line-up.

Horses qualify for the seven championship contests on the £1.1-million All-Weather Championships Finals Day (Good Friday, April 3, 2015) by winning a specified fast-track qualifying race, or by running in a minimum of three times on selected all-weather tracks.

Read ‘Horse Talk with Simon Jackson’ at London24 for the latest horse racing news.