Off Art leaves it late to provide Easterby with birthday gift

Off Art ridden (left) by Brian Harding wins The Clipper Logistics Leger Legends Classified Stakes, during day one of the William Hill St. Leger Festival at Doncaster Racecourse. (Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)

Harding, who won the Queen Mother Champion Chase on One Man in 1998, spent nearly all of his career connected to the Gordon and Nicky Richards stable in Greystoke, Cumbria.

Off Art, without a win since 2013, got up late in the day from Adrian Nicholls on Fire Palace to provide Great Habton trainer Tim Easterby with a birthday winner.

Seventy-year-old George Duffield, who rode his first winner 50 years ago, could finish no closer than seventh on Brian Ellison’s Soldier Blue.

Nobleman's Nest ridden by Silvestre De Sousa wins The Owlerton Greyhound Stadium Nursery Handicap Stakes, during day one of the William Hill St. Leger Festival at Doncaster Racecourse. (Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)

Harding said: “That was hard work but it was good fun! I ride out three or four horses every day who are being broken in but then you come and do this? I thought ‘Oh my God’.

“No, it was good fun really.

“I am 45 in two weeks’ time and I left home when I was 15. So I was a jockey for almost 30 years. It just takes a little getting away from. But I do the jockey coaching job and that keeps me involved. Jamie Gormley is one of mine and he is a good lad and there are some cracking good jump lads too.”

Easterby added: “It’s a wonderful race, it’s such a big day for racing. A lot of money is raised for charities that need it. Once racing stops, for a lot of these guys riding and working in the industry, things can happen and they need support.

“Brian’s ridden plenty for me over the years so it was great to have him. A brilliant solid jockey who always gave a horse a good ride. You never had any problems with him and you didn’t have to give him orders!”

Inaugurated in 2010, retired riders raise funds for the Northern Racing College and Jack Berry House, the Injured Jockeys Fund complex at Malton.

Meanwhile, Encore D’Or picked up the pieces late on to land yesterday’s Pepsi Max Scarbrough Stakes. It was the Robert Cowell-trained sprinter’s first win on the turf – all six previous successes came on the all-weather.

With the contest one race too far for Paul Midgley’s Final Venture who has been on the go all year, jockey Ryan Moore timed his challenge to perfection.

Moore will be hoping for further success today after persuading Middleham trainer Mark Johnston to run Nyaleti in the William Hill May Hill Stakes.

The jockey suggested that the horse should step up in trip after winning the six-furlong Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot.

The advice has been heeded after Nyaleti proved no match for Karl Burke’s Unfortunately in the Prix Morny at Deauville last month.

“Ryan did say he thought this is the direction we should be going in, but we decided to punt and go for the Prix Morny,” said Johnston’s son and assistant, Charlie. “We knew after two furlongs that the writing was on the wall.”

The chief rival appears to be the Burke-trained Laurens, the mount of in form jockey PJ McDonald.