Easterby's proud of Mukhayyam

Mukhayyam landed the feature Ripon Bell-Ringer Handicap to provide Tim Easterby with a 74-1 double at the North Yorkshire course on Saturday.
Tim EasterbyTim Easterby
Tim Easterby

A winner at York last week, the game front-runner continued his good recent form and followed up the earlier impressive victory of Bow Belles (14-1) for Easterby and David Allan in the Mick Gibbons Memorial Novice Stakes.

Ripon has often suited those who make the running on the round track and that was certainly the case on the opening day of the Go Racing In Yorkshire Summer Festival.

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After three lifeless runs earlier in the season, which saw him drop in the weights, Mukhayyam (4-1) has now been second twice and won two of his last five runs.

MukhayyamMukhayyam
Mukhayyam

Fleeting Visit was a persistent challenger inside the final furlong, but Allan’s mount eventually pulled three and a half lengths clear of the 3-1 favourite.

“The race we had our eye on was the Queen Mother’s Cup at York which he was second in,” said Easterby.

“But all he does his stay and we didn’t tell Emily (Easterby) to kick on soon enough.

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“He takes a lot of getting fit each season, but he’s a lovely horse, very game.

MukhayyamMukhayyam
Mukhayyam

“There might be a race at Goodwood for him and then he’ll go to the Ebor meeting. He doesn’t have to have it soft.”

Bow Belles took a big step forward from her debut at the track in April to run out a ready winner as Saeed bin Suroor’s Moseeb disappointed.

Easterby said: “She ran very well first time up here and we wanted to take her to York, but the ground was too quick. She came home really strongly today and was quite impressive. She’s quick, I wish I’d put her in the sales races! I have a good record with two-year-olds here, but you have to have the right type.

“She’d run well here first time, so we knew she’d be OK.”

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Hugo Palmer is dreaming of a potential tilt at next season’s 2000 Guineas with Arbalet after he confirmed previous promise with a runaway victory at Redcar yesterday.

The son of Dark Angel filled the runner-up spot on his first two starts at York and Yarmouth and he was the 8-11 favourite to make it third-time lucky in the first division of the Get The Sky Bet Advantage EBF Novice Stakes.

Punters who got involved at the cramped odds will have had few concerns as Arbalet readily pulled three and a half lengths clear of Barbarianatthegate in the hands of jockey Josephine Gordon.

Palmer, who won last year’s 2000 Guineas with Galileo Gold, is looking forward to testing his exciting colt in a higher grade later in the season.

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“He’s a big horse who is still quite raw and we’ve always felt he could develop into a very nice three-year-old,” said the Newmarket-based trainer.

“We were a little bit gutted he didn’t win either of his first two starts, to be honest, but he didn’t really do a lot wrong on either occasion.

“I think he’s probably crying out for a mile and the dream is that he’s a 2000 Guineas horse. For a big, raw horse like him, he’s had three fairly quick runs and I think we’ll leave him alone now for quite some time.

“We could look at the Solario Stakes at Sandown (September 2), or we could wait for the Royal Lodge (September 30) or the Autumn Stakes (October 14) at Newmarket.

“It’s a long way from Redcar to a 2000 Guineas, but he’s won easily and Jack Hobbs went from winning at Wolverhampton to winning an Irish Derby, so it can be done.”