Elmonjed opened his Group-race account in York's Go Local Stores Minster Stakes.
Trained by William Haggas, who was completing a double on day one of the Dante Festival, Elmonjed arrived for the Group 2 event a race-fit horse on the back of a comeback outing at Newmarket and he relished the return to York where he had been successful on three occasions in the past.
With the cheekpieces and a tongue-tie back on for the first time this year, Elmonjed was ridden by William Buick who had to stoke his mount up a fair way from home but made up ground to challenge 4/1 joint-favourite Kind Of Blue with a furlong and a half to travel.
The winner, who had emerged from stall one towards the far side, got on top before staying on strongly to get the better of the James Fanshawe-trained Kind Of Blue (stall two), scoring by a length with three-quarters of a length further back to Regional (28/1) who shaped well in third from a prominent position up the centre of the course.
Time For Sandals, the other 4/1 joint-favourite, could never get into a challenging position from stall 10 and finished outside of the places.
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Buick said: "He's just such a lovely horse, lovely to deal with. He did everything right in the race, set up nicely for him and, I must say, from halfway, I was never really in much doubt. Nice spare ride to pick up and he probably did appreciate that rain we had earlier.
"That's exactly it [his good course form] so that's what caught my eye immediately; he's a horse that loves this place, very professional, goes about his business and won a good prize today. Good performance and in these sprints no margin for error, you can get different results and the affinity this lad has with the track, with York, is obviously a key factor."
Haggas said: "He's a tough, genuine horse and loves it here for some reason, which is great for us. We kept him in training to run in this race."
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