Aiden O’Brien cleaning up the weekend’s Group race wins, with victories in Newmarket’s Group 1s, the Middle Park with Ten Sovereigns and the Cheveley Park with Fairyland, plus Mohawk taking the Group 2 Royal Lodge, in which O’Brien trained the second and third, then the Group 2 Beresford Stake at Naas courtesy of Japan which was the highlight of a four-timer
Persian Moon getting free entry in next year’s Derby after winning Epsom’s Investec Conditions Stakes for syndicate owners Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds X who’s shareholders can dream of following Dee Ex Bee’s route with trainer Mark Johnston secure in the knowledge that if nothing else, the colt looked very much at home on the Downs
Gerald Mosse clocking up his 30th winner of the season, more than double his tally last year – the 52-year-old, who has the Arc and Melbourne Cup on his CV, is enjoying a new lease of life since basing himself in Newmarket
Richard Johnson and Sam Twiston-Davies carving up a seven-race card at Perth with Johnson booting home no less than five winners (all trained by Gordon Elliot) and Twiston-Davies the other two
Mark Johnston training his 200th winner of the season when Artic Storm took Newmarket’s Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes ridden by Silvestre De Sousa
Mick Channon’s Certain Lad picking up the listed Criterium de Lyon by three lengths to make it another British trained two-year-old winner in France
Jockey David Allen riding a treble at Redcar taking him to seven winners in five days
Four-year-old filly Savanah Moon being captured after escaping from Newcastle racecourse where she unseated jockey Tom Eaves, who broke his leg in three places from the fall – the filly evaded attempts to stop her on the racecourse, crashed through the running rail and broke onto the adjoining golf course but was eventually recovered by members of the public as she headed towards the A1
STEWARDS ROOM
and what hasn’t been so good
Initial attendance figures for Doncaster’s St Leger meeting reporting a 15% drop on prior year before it was realised that not all corporate hospitality bookings had been counted and actual attendance, whilst down, was 2,000 fewer across the four days at 57,218 and not the worrying 7,000 as first though
Jockey Trevor Williams, who recently started to ride exclusively on the Flat, winning at Chester but being unseated after the line and fracturing his ankle putting him out of action for about two months
The HBA expressing its disappointment that Patrick Mullins received the ride of the year award at the Jockey Club Racecourses’ McCoys awards for his win on Rathvinden at the Cheltenham Festival’s National Hunt Chase, a race in which he received six-day ban for using his whip above the permitted level and now without giving his horse time to respond from the last fence
