'Tis the season to be puzzled by open BetGoodwin Oxford final

THE last in the trilogy of the BetGoodwin Series of maiden competitions concludes at Oxford on Saturday evening with the £3,000 final of the Maiden Stayers Trophy over 650m.

Sean White's Broadway Steel landed the sprint event in November, a race notable for subsequent English Puppy Oaks heroine finishing fourth, with Maxine Locke's Droopys Prefect running away with the four-bend final earlier this month.

As for the six-bender, it looks wide-open as an appropriately-festive BetGoodwin MD Julian Head explained to Jonathan Kay.