Treaty Of Rome a topical Southwell winner

Treaty Of Rome was a topical winner at Southwell on the day Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 to trigger the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.

In 1957 Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed an agreement that brought about the creation of the European Economic Community, which was known as the Treaty of Rome.

Punters who like their topical tips were in clover as the former Aidan O'Brien inmate, now with Derek Shaw, beat Captain Bob by a neck in the Betway Sprint Handicap at 9/2 under Tony Hamilton.

"Do you know I only realised the other day when I read in the paper about Article 50 where the name Treaty Of Rome came from. It's quite funny he's won today," said Shaw.

"He's still a lightly-raced horse, his owner (John Saville) deserves plenty of credit for being patient and now it is paying dividends.

"Tony knows him now and said he was going to challenge late and it worked out well."

It was a good day for Shaw as his only other runner, Hammer Gun (9/4), brought up a four-timer inside just 20 days in impressive style for Martin Lane.

"He's actually declared at Chelmsford of Thursday but he won't run now," said Shaw.

"He's progressing quickly and I wouldn't do that to him, he's quite a valuable commodity now.

"He's only had one run on turf for me in the Doncaster Legends race, but there's no reason he can't continue his progression. I'll have to have a proper look and see where to go with him.

"Treaty Of Rome was off Aidan O'Brien and Hammer Gun off SIr Michael Stoute, so we haven't done too badly with them.

"Credit must go to the team at home, my wife was instrumental in us getting Treaty Of Rome and I've got some good staff - you can't do this job without them."

Another notable success was that of the Shaun Harris-trained Roy's Legacy (5/2 favourite), who was registering his 12th win on the all-weather in the Betway Dash Handicap.