Go Racing In Yorkshire Summer Festival: Days shows true grit

The Go Racing In Yorkshire Summer Festival saves the best for the day before last and the packed York crowds were treated to contrasting styles of victory in the two feature races on Saturday afternoon.

On the one hand you had Flying Pursuit scorching to victory by two lengths (it felt like more) in the Sky Bet Dash, more on him later, and on the other you had Irish raider Success Days, battling with every sinew of his handsome grey frame to edge out Mondialiste by a nose in the Group Two Sky Bet York Stakes.

Two great races. And the Sky Bet York Stakes was a deserved success for Ken Condon’s pride and joy, Success Days, a horse that bravely recovered from a serious injury sustained in Golden Horn’s Investec Derby two years ago to return to the track as good as he ever was.

He’s had big days before. He beat Fascinating Rock in the Group Three Royal Whip Stakes at the Curragh last August, and he wasn’t beaten far by Found prior to that. But this, a Group Two victory. This was his best day. And he had to battle hard.

“He really gave everything and he had to, that was the ceiling of his ability, but he really dug in and gave everything,” said Condon afterwards. 

“We thought we might’ve been booked for second again. His first run back this year was at Naas and he was chinned in the last few strides and in his most recent run at the Curragh he was caught by Johannes Vermeer.

“It’s great that he got his turn today and a Group Two is super, I’m delighted for the horse.”

Jockey Shane Foley, who was handed a six-day ban for using his whip above the permitted level and in the incorrect place, dictated matters from the front and had just enough left in the tank in the closing stages, as first he was challenged by William Haggas’s Victory Bond before the final assault from David O’Meara’s globetrotter Mondialiste on the outside.

It was close, but the photo finish didn’t take too long to come through. Number six, Success Days. By a nose.

“I thought I’d held on, but it’s always a bit dodgy,” said Foley walking back to the weighing room just after the race. 

“He’s genuine, he deserved that to be honest - he’s been knocking on the door. Today’s his day.”

If this was his best day, Derby day 2015 was his worst. Sent off 12/1 for Classic glory after winning the two best Irish trials – the Ballysax and the Derrinstown – the fast ground proved to be against him and he finished last. Worst of all, he wouldn’t run again until November.

“Normally they don’t come back from what happened at Epsom,” said Condon. 

“He fractured his pastern and a lot of horses that have a bad experience at Epsom don’t come back. He had six weeks' box rest, worked his way back, he’s typical of a son of Jeremy. He’s just so tough, he likes soft ground and he’s a really exciting horse.”

With the Group Two in the bag, it sounds like Condon will be rolling the dice in a Group One later in the campaign. It would have to be very soft for him to take up his Juddmonte International entry back here next month, but Irish Champions Weekend, or Ascot, or perhaps the Group One Grosser Preis von Bayern in Germany, could be on the horizon.

“Champions Weekend is very important at home,” Condon said. “He’s entered in the Irish Champion but that’s a very hot race normally, it will be ground dependent. He’ll be in the mile and a half Group Three, there is a Group Two, the Boomerang Stakes [over a mile], so we might have a look at that as well.

“I’d love to go maybe to Ascot on very soft ground. We’ll look for very testing ground, the likes of Munich or something. There used to be one in Milan but that’s now been downgraded to a Group Two in October, but maybe that Munich race in November could be the one.”

Wherever he goes, you can count on Success Days to give his all. The way he did it today was gutsy. It could become his trademark.

Ontoawinner crew land Dash cash

While Success Days is unlikely to rock up at the Ebor Festival, York didn’t miss a trick in the aftermath of Enable’s brilliant King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes victory at Ascot.

Frankie Dettori had barely finished celebrating crossing the Ascot finish line when the big screens at York flashed up a scrolling message saying ‘TRAINER JOHN GOSDEN SAYS ENABLE TO HEAD FOR DARLEY YORKSHIRE OAKS HERE ON THURSDAY AUGUST 24TH’.

That’s something to look forward to next month, but today was about smaller owners, smaller than the likes of Prince Khalid Abdullah anyway, enjoying the big stage, and, that shrewd Ontoawinner syndicate, of Quiet Reflection fame, were at it again in the Sky Bet Dash.

‘Go on Rachel, go on Rachel, go on Rachel,’ was the cry from a group of gentlemen in white and yellow ties, but jockey Rachel Richardson didn’t need support from afar. She was away and gone, the usually competitive Sky Bet Dash wrapped up two furlongs out as she scooted clear aboard Flying Pursuit on the far side. 

The Ayr Gold Cup could be his next big target, depending on what the handicapper does, but for Simon Bridge, one of the directors of the Ontoawinner syndicate, it was all about today.

“That’s just fantastic,” a beaming Bridge said, moments after Flying Pursuit had crossed the line. 

“It’s our local track as well which makes it even better. This horse has always had plenty of ability and I thought last time at Hamilton we probably just disappointed him a little bit by not kicking on with him.

“I wasn’t quite expecting him to kick on like he did today but that was superb. 

“Tim [Easterby, trainer] thought he’d run a nice race and that we might just get in the money. He’s done that! That was a great ride from Rachel, she’s worth her 3lb which you sometimes need in handicaps like this one.

“He needs that bit of cut in the ground as well, so everything has fallen into place today. It was beautiful.”