Cecil's many reasons to be cheerful

Like Musidora winner Aviate and Middleton Stakes second Midday, Manifest wore the colours of Prince Khalid Abdullah in yesterday's Group Two feature, the Emirates Airline Yorkshire Cup, and the ease with which he swatted aside his field will have given even Cecil, now approaching the twilight of his brilliant career, reason to smile all the way along the journey home.

In the end it was more a procession than a serious contest, so smoothly did Tom Queally first open then extend a lead which made Purple Moon, the winner of over 1.1m in his career, and the supposedly dangerous Godolphin stayer Wajir look like modest handicappers.

Cecil could not have imagined a more facile success. Oasis Knight set a muddling pace with Manifest tucked in immediately behind and Frankie Dettori aboard Wajir and Kieren Fallon on Purple Moon just behind.

Oasis Knight quickened as they turned for home but Queally was still comfortable and when he asked Manifest make an impression the response was Rolls Royce-smooth with just a hint of disdain for the rest. He was immediately installed as 6-1 favourite for Royal Ascot's showpiece, the odds tumbling from 14-1.

Cecil commented: "I love Cup horses and he could just make into a nice one.

"He did it well and quickened away nicely. He is an improving horse and it is now up to the Prince if he runs in the Gold Cup."

Lord Grimthorpe, the Prince's racing manager, confirmed: "I'm sure the Prince would want him to run in the Gold Cup. In fact I am sure he will be more than keen."

And if all that was not enough, Cecil, who was excited enough by proceedings to be observed breaking into a trot at one stage, sent out another winner half an hour later when Chachamaidee, benefiting from yet another superb-timed ride from Queally, caught the hat-trick seeking Carioca and Fallon in the last 50 yards of the Sportingbet.com Fillies' Stakes.

No doubt the bubbly was flowing at Warren Place last night as Cecil and his team celebrated but there would also have been the odd glass consumed in the strongholds of Yorkshire racing with both Mick Easterby and David Barron sending out winners yesterday.

Easterby had every confidence in Hoof It, owned by golfer Lee Westwood and his manager Andrew Chandler, and the three-year-old lived up to expectations with an emphatic success under Graham Gibbons in the five-furlong Ralph Raper Memorial Stakes after a sustained gamble had closed him to 5-2 at the off.

Gibbons completed a quick double when he drove home Barron's filly Ingleby Lady in the Sportingbet.com Stakes with the trainer saying: "She's a smart filly and is like a gelding in that she is very strong.

"You have to keep at her as she is big and burly but I do think she is quite a nice filly."

That brought the total of Yorkshire-trained winners at the Festival to an admirable seven, ensuring that a decent percentage of owners and stable staff in the region will look back on the Dante meeting of 2010 with fond memories.

Of the meeting's Group races perhaps the best performance came in the opening day's Tattersalls Musidora Stakes when Cecil's Aviate maintained her unbeaten record, overhauling Irish outsider Gold Bubbles in the dying strides.

Aviate had appeared to be locked out of the race as the runners straightened for home but she responded willingly to a driving ride by Eddie Ahern and as Gold Bubbles strayed from the rail found the room to give the ever-popular Cecil his ninth triumph in York's Oaks trial.

The colts' equivalent, the Totesport Dante, yielded a similarly impressive winner in Cape Blanco but the manner of his success was far less dramatic, Johnny Murtagh always having Aidan O'Brien's charge in touch as Paul Hanagan and Circumvent set a testing pace.

The favourite Chabal and Frankie Dettori could not land a blow as Murtagh eased Cape Blanco into the lead and went away to win in style, proving that Ballydoyle has another potential star alongside St Nicholas Abbey and certainly a colt worth following for the rest of the season.

Barry Hills, another prolific winner at York, recorded his seventh victory in the Duke of York Blue Square Stakes when Robert Winston ensured Prime Defender kept up to his work as the pack closed in and hung on to win at 20-1 from the Khalid Abdullah pair Showcasing – another to watch as the summer develops – and Main Aim.

Wednesday's second Group Two race, the Totesport.com Middleton Stakes always looked a match between Midday and Sariska and so it turned out with the latter making all and taking full advantage of the 5lb pull in the weights to just hold off a late charge from Cecil's Breeders' Cup heroine.