RAIN came with a vengeance for Newton Abbot's final fixture of 2010 yesterday, and it turned the going to heavy during the afternoon.

The horses finished tired and mud-splattered in the testing going, and several intended runners were taken out because of the ground.

Racehorses, racing people and racehorses are tougher than that, however, and it did not spoil things!

The wonderful South West Racing Club, which has done sterling work in promoting horse racing in the South West over more than 30 years, sponsored six of the seven races.

The first of those, which opened proceedings, was a Novices' Hurdle over 2m 1f.

Peter Bowen, the Haverfordwest trainer, took it with 15-8 favourite, Rudanphast ridden by Richard Johnson.

Marc Aureole, the main market rival and trained by champion Paul Nicholls set out to make all but Rudanpahst took over three out and went clear to win by nine lengths.

The winner, who is owned by Mrs Tania Stepney, was making his hurdling debut but had won two bumpers. It was certainly a gutsy first attempt over obstacles in the conditions.

Shock results may have been expected and backers only had to wait for the second race, the South West Racing Club Novices' Handicap Hurdle. 20-1 shot Chestnut Ben, the bottom weight ridden by David Bass and trained in Hungerford by Gary Brown, made a mistake at the first but went away from Maizy Missile at the business end to win by nine lengths. The successful owner was John Bourke.

Cashel Blue, trained by Pat Rodford at Martock put up a tremendous performance to land the Joan Pearson Birthday Handicap Steeplechase.

Jockey Keiran Burke sent his mount into the lead from the start and he was never passed.

He powered on throughout the 3m 3f trip in the heavy ground. There was still 12 lengths between Cashel Blue and nearest rival Caheerloch when they passed the post.

Cashel Blue was winning his second race in 15 outings but will never have run a gamer one.

He is owned by the Monday Boys Partnership and Baggy! He was well backed from 12-1 into 8-1.

Big Bucks, South West Racing Club Racehorse of the Year, was paraded in the paddock before the fourth race.

This was the South West Racing Club Handicap Chase. It was a Class 3 race that offered £6,300-plus to the winner and was the day's feature race.

Father and son Nigel and Sam Twiston-Davies, Cheltenham trainer and very promising conditional jockey have done very well at recent meetings on the course and they did it again here.

They had the second in the previous race with favourite Caheerloch but went one better when Moulin De La Croix won after always being prominent.

The winner, another bottom weight, is owned by the trainer and started at 8-1.

Sporting Rebel, from Jimmy Frost's Buckfastleigh yard and ridden by his son Hadden, ran very well to be second, beaten less than three lengths.

The 3-1 second favourite Kijivu, ridden by Felix De Giles, then took the 4.30pm race by three lengths from Isabel Tompsett on 7-2 Olivino.

Richie McLernon brought the 7-2 joint-second favourite In The Zone, trained by Jonjo O'Neill, home in the afternoon's penultimate race.

And the season at Newton Abbot was completed as the day began — with a win for Johnson.

The jockey completed his day's double by bringing 5-6 favourite Am I Blue home ahead of 9-1 shot You Can Of Course.