THERE is over £1.6m in prize money on offer for 2022 as Hamilton Park opens its new season with a family raceday on Sunday.

The most valuable race on the card is the £35,000 Les Hoey MBE Dreammaker Foundation EBF Tangerine Trees Conditions Stakes over 5f and, with the top BHA rating of 106, Gis A Sub is likely to be sent off a short-priced favourite for Kevin Stott and Kevin Ryan.

Dragon Symbol, the winner twelve months ago, went on to finish second four times in Group 1 and Group 2 company and is just one of several previous illustrious previous winners of the race.

The other feature race is the £30,000 Patersons Of Greenoakhill Buttonhook Handicap, which receives its name after the unusual shape of the Lanarkshire track.

A wide-open contest sees plenty of trainers represented that have won the race before including in-form local handler Keith Dalgleish, who is triple-handed with Haizoom, Heights Of Abraham and Diocletian.

Forza Orta, another Yorkshire raider trained by Kevin Ryan, was an emphatic winner of a novice stakes last September on his only previous visit to Hamilton Park and he shaped with plenty of promise of his third-placed comeback at Thirsk.

Hambleton-based Ryan has a handsome 20 per cent strike-rate at the track where he has saddled a whopping 112 winners – more than he has achieved at any other UK turf venue.

by Gordon Brown