Big names triumph in Fakenham sun

McCoy won the opener at Fakenham's first May meeting (Getty)

Favourites dominated at Fakenham races on Wednesday, with big-name jockeys winning four out of the six races.

Sam Thomas, Tony McCoy, Richard Johnson and Timmy Murphy all secured victory.

Murphy rode 11-4 shot Virginia Preuil home in the Sis Novices Hurdle, winning by a length and a half from favourite Ofarel D'airy.

"He handled the ground well, and battled on well in the end," Murphy, the 2008 Grand National winner, told BBC Radio Norfolk.

Tony McCoy took the opener on board the 8-11 favourite Rapscallion, his only ride of the meeting.

Richard Johnson's mount Apocalozzo, the 15-8 favourite, won the second before Murphy's determined victory.

Sam Thomas, the 2008 Gold Cup winning jockey, rode the Paul Nicholls trained Ocean du Moulin to win the Novices Chase before the penultimate race provided some East Anglian success.

Fakenham's been a lucky course for me, it's just very hard to get to Grand National winning jockey Timmy Murphy

Bury St Edmunds based owner Joe Turner continued his family's run of success at the course when Kadount won the three-mile chase and then lifted the trophy named after him.

The Turner family have now won the race 18 times from 43 renewals.

Warm sunshine greeted Fakenham's first May meeting of the year, leaving just one complaint from Timmy Murphy.

"Touch wood, Fakenham has been a lucky course for me, it's just very hard to get to," he joked.