Stratusnine ran out a well backed winner of the hugely competitive Sky Bet Dash at York.
The 100/30 favourite, trained by Hugo Palmer, was always in the front rank as the bulk of the field, and the pace, was concentrated towards the far side of the track.
Market rival Red Spells Danger was always on Stratusnine's heels but was found wanting close home, weakening into fifth.
Air Force One (third) and Veblen Good (fourth) came through the pack but could never reel in the leader but the biggest threat came from Coul Angel who ended up all alone, hard against the stands' side rail, and finished with a rattle to give the favourite backers a scare.
The winning distances were half-a-length and two necks.
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James Doyle was the man on board the four-year-old and told Racing TV: "He's pretty uncomplicated. We hadn't planned on being that close but we winged the lids and there wasn't any gallop on early so I was happy to coast along and I thought we got it very easy down inside the two and when I asked him, he just did what he needed to do late on.
"I was always comfortable. I could see him [Coul Angel] out of the corner of my eye but my fellow wasn't doing a tap but to be fair to him, when the closers came at him a bit he did put his head down.
"It's unfortunate that he hadn't landed a good race like this until now. He was arguably a little unlucky here before, he just got on the back foot a little bit and finished off well, then he's had wide draws and things haven't quite panned out.
"He was worthy of that today."
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