Bargain buy Tonto delights Ellison

“It’s brilliant. I’ve never been so happy to finish second!” said the ecstatic Malton trainer, who was enjoying the most lucrative result of his dual career from a prize money perspective.

The £227,900 pot for coming second more than recouped owner Keith Brown’s decision to supplement his chestnut horse into the Grade One race – one of the features of Qipco British Champions Day – last Monday at a cost of £70,000.

Even taking into account the entry outlay paid out by the property dealer, the profit eclipses the £130,000 that Ellison’s Moyenne Corniche accrued after winning the 2011 Ebor at York, the most prestigious race that the trainer has landed in his career that spans 25 years.

In contrast to many of his opponents, including the now retired 2000 Guineas winner Dawn Approach, who was unplaced, Top Notch Tonto cost just £3,000 and went to Ascot following impressive wins at Haydock and Redcar.

He travelled so well that he even took up the running under jockey Dale Swift before the Richard Hannon-trained Olympic Glory, a proven Group One horse who has been campaigned in France, swooped under champion jockey Richard Hughes to win by just over three lengths, with Aidan O’Brien’s Racing Post Trophy winner Kingsbarns third.

Ellison, whose alarm went off at 4am on Saturday so he could feed Top Notch Tonto before the long journey to Ascot, says his stable star will probably have to race in France next year where there will be a greater likelihood of softer going.

“That is the key,” he told the Yorkshire Post. “But this wasn’t a horse running on past tired horses. He hit the front and took the race by the scruff of the neck. I am over the moon.

“For a horse that cost £3,000, it shows it can be done – you don’t need to spend millions. I’m delighted for the whole team at the yard.

“I was up at 4am and fed him. Dale said he couldn’t sleep, it was his first ride in a Group One, but you wouldn’t have known it. He was terrific. I told him just to treat it like any other race.”

While Olympic Glory runs in the colours of Sheikh Joaan, one of racing’s new breed of mega-rich Middle East owners who was also responsible for this month’s Arc hero Treve, Sheikh Mohammed’s established Godolphin operation took the feature Qipco Champion Stakes over 10 furlongs with Farhh.

The victory ended a desperate year off the track for the ‘boys in blue’ following a series of desperately embarrassing doping controversies, but this was a remarkable training performance by trainer Saeed bin Suroor whose reputation remains untainted.

This was five-year-old Farrh’s 10th and final race – he has now been retired to stud – because of his fragile legs that has seen him off the track since May when he won Newbury’s Lockinge Stakes.

Farrh first came to prominence when winning the Thirsk Hunt Cup in 2012 before chasing home Frankel in York’s Juddmonte International.

In outbattling French raider Cirrus Des Aigles, the 2011 winner, and also Epsom Derby winner Ruler Of The World with York winner Mukhadram unplaced, he was providing jockey Silvestre de Sousa – who was based in Thirsk before joining Godolphin nearly two years ago – with the biggest win of his burgeoning career.

Bin Suroor, who joined Godolphin in 1995, urged his horse home from the running rail opposite the winning post before galloping onto the track in celebration.

He said: “This horse is a great fighter. I am very proud of him and this is good for Godolphin. Every year, he has had problems. Luckily, he has won a pair of Group Ones on his last two races. He is a great horse and I am so happy.

“He’s been a very tough horse since he was a two-year-old but we’ve just had to look after him with a different programme to keep him sound.”

Elsewhere Harris Tweed, who runs in the colours of Yorkshire textile tycoon Brian Haggas, was pipped on the line at the end of a gruelling stayers’ race by the Johnny Murtagh-trained and ridden Royal Diamond, with the Queen’s Estimate unplaced after never landing a blow.

Trained by the owner’s son William, who was not optimistic beforehand, the brave front-running ride by George Baker shows that soft ground is key to Harris Tweed.

Baker received some consolation when taking the fillies and mares race on the James Fanshawe-trained Seal of Approval – this is the horse that gave Hayley Turner a season-ending fall at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting.

Slade Power’s narrow win in the sprint over Jack Dexter denied Bedale rider Graham Lee a deserved first Group One win on the Flat.

Lee, a former Grand National-winning rider, was cursing his luck – he was also second in this dash 12 months ago when he partnered Jack Dexter’s stablemate Hawkeyethenoo.

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