A WHOPPING crowd of 2,700 racegoers turned out on Monday when the Orchard Portman course hosted the DragonBet Race Meeting.

The sun shone, it was the day before Cheltenham and DragonBet had offered two free tickets to those who booked a week in advance, all of which helped to make this the biggest crowd of the year, apart from the post Christmas meeting.

Those who attended were treated to a great day of national hunt action which featured a number of locally owned trained horses and some close finishes..

The first race was won by the Harry Fry trained Sherminator closely followed by Red N Yellow trained by Philip Hobbs and Johnson White.

The second saw evens favourite Fasol triumph for Paul Nicholls under champion jockey Harry Cobden, with Disguisedlimit from the Hobbs/ White yard third.

In the third the West Somerset duo went one better when Sunninghill won going off at 5-2 favourite and in the next Micheal Nolan rode the Hobbs/White trained Musical Slave to victory at 5-1.

David Pipe chalked up his 48th winner of the season when Skin Full ridden by stable jockey Jack Tudor won the fifth at 13-8 favourite. Tudor enjoyed his second success in the penultimate race when he rode Siam Park to victory for Joe Tizzard at 11-8 favourite.

The final event was won by Whatmakes Honey B ridden by Chad Bament who went off at 14-1 - the longest priced winner of the day.

The next meeting at Taunton is on Tuesday 25th March when the first race is due off at 2.35pm.

To take advantage of the generous discounts that are available buy tickets on-line before 12 noon on the day prior to racing by logging onto www.tauntonracecourse.co.uk

Following this Taunton race on 9th. 17th and 23rd April.