Brando produces a stellar performance in Newmarket win

Named after Hollywood legend Marlon Brando, the headline-making horse was providing Hambleton trainer Kevin Ryan with a third win in the last four runnings of the Group Three Abernant Stakes.

Wins for Hamza and Astaire in recent years were added to by Brando who won the Ayr Gold Cup last season before finishing third at Ascot on Champions Day.

Ornate, on his first start for Robert Cowell, was allowed to get a break on the field under Ryan Moore and briefly it looked like the even money favourite had a fight on his hands in this sprint.

On meeting the rising ground, Tom Eaves asked Brando for his effort and he managed to win going away by a length in the vivid yellow and purple colours of South Yorkshire couple Pete Tingey and Angie Bailey.

Ryan said: “He’s some horse. We were a little concerned about the fast ground but we had to find out as we’re going to come up with the same problem at some stage in the season.

“It was nice to get a lead off Ornate, but you start to get worried when Ryan Moore has a soft lead and he seemed to be getting away. Brando has a lot of class and it’s the sign of a classy horse to pick one up who’s had an easy lead. The Duke of York will be his next run.”

Meanwhile the feature Craven Stakes, a historic trial for next month’s 2000 Guineas, went to Maryn Meade’s Eminent, another of the stallion Frankel’s progeny. powered clear of Rivet to win by a length and three-quarters.

Ridden by champion jockey Jim Crowley, the colt powered clear of the Lester Piggott-bred Rivet who had won last season’s Group One Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster.

George Baker has left hospital and will continue his recovery from the head injury he sustained in a fall in February at a rehabilitation centre nearer to his home.

The jockey, who won the St Leger last September on Harbour Law, was riding Boomerang Bob for Jamie Osborne at St Moritz in Switzerland when the horse was brought down and fatally injured.

Baker was found to have suffered some bleeding in the brain following his fall and had been undergoing treatment in the Wellington Hospital in London.

He said: “The staff have been amazing. I arrived there on March 6 and they told my wife, Nicola, that I would be there for at least four months “Thanks to their support, I have made really good progress, have learnt to walk again and hope to get home in the next month or so. I count myself really lucky.”

Danny Cook is to ride the Sue Smith-trained novice Vintage Clouds in tomorrow’s Scottish National.

Though Cook was out of luck in the Grand National when the well-fancied Definitly Red was pulled up after being badly impeded, the jockey recorded his 50th winner of the campaign with a double at Sedgefield on Thursday night. It was the first time that he’s reached this landmark.

Meanwhile National-winning jockey Derek Fox will ride Sandy Thomson’s Seldom Inn in the Ayr marathon.