Dante Festival: Lion tamed by Pride of Arras in York upset

The latter horse was the ante-post Derby favourite and was expected to take a step towards the Classic at York, but after wrestling with Ryan Moore in the early stages, the 8-11 market leader never seemed to land a blow and finished unplaced.

Instead it was Pride Of Arras, ridden by Rossa Ryan and trained by Ralph Beckett, who came to the fore with length-and-a-quarter triumph at odds of 18-1, with 16-1 shot Damysus second and Wimbledon Hawkeye third.

Pride Of Arras is now a 4-1 chance with Paddy Power for the Betfred Derby, having been available at 50s before the race.

Beckett said: “I think that was everything I hoped for and more.

“I was saying to the owner that I’d been tough on him to get him here, we had to take him away, he galloped at Lambourn about two and a half weeks ago and he’d been on the watered gallop at home several times.

“He’ll come forward from today as well, when I say I was tough on him it was his lack of experience, he rolled around at Sandown before he went clear, he found experience easy in the end but through the race he wasn’t finding it easy.”

Earlier, See The Fire delivered a red-hot run to take the Basti Equiworld Dubai Middleton Fillies’ Stakes in remarkably good style.

Andrew Balding’s chestnut was the 8-11 favourite under Oisin Murphy and was ridden patiently in the Group Two from stall four.

In the home straight, they began to pick through horses and the four-year-old was quickly able to take up a lead that then got wider and wider, eventually reaching 12 lengths on the line, with Godolphin’s Beautiful Love the runner-up.

Balding said: “That was smashing, we’ve always had a very high opinion of her and she’s improved since last year.

“We probably made a bit of a mess of her last year as we didn’t step up in trip until it was too late. For some reason, she wasn’t at her best in the Eclipse (when fourth behind City Of Troy), but she really found her feet after that, winning the Strensall here and she had a very good run on Champions Day (fifth in Champion Stakes) having had a busy season.

“We were a little disappointed on her comeback run at Sandown, but she probably needed the run – she travelled well through the race and didn’t quite get home, but that’s put her spot-on for today.”

It is 10 years since See The Fire’s dam, Arabian Queen, ran out a shock 50-1 winner of the Juddmonte International at York, beating that season’s Dante, Derby and Eclipse hero Golden Horn.

See The Fire could well return to the Knavesmire later in the summer in a bid to emulate her mother, and sire Sea The Stars, with a Group One victory at Goodwood beforehand also a major target.

“She’s a very exciting horse and we always fancied the Nassau for her this year. She was second in it last year and if that goes well, we might consider coming back here in August for the Juddmonte International,” Balding added.

Charlie Appleby was pleased with the performance of runner-up Beautiful Love, saying: “The winner is different class to the rest of us and as William (Buick) said, they got racing far enough out and the rest of us sort of paid for it a little bit.”

American Affair won the day’s opening race, the Lindum York Handicap.

Old Cock (9-2) finished with a flourish to claim a last-gasp victory in the Oakmere Homes Hambleton Handicap, while Andrew Balding’s Tropical Storm booked his ticket for Royal Ascot with victory in the British Stallion Studs EBF Westow Stakes.

First Legion (6-1) was a second impressive debut winner in two days on the Knavesmire for Richard Hannon in the Frank Whittle Partnership ebfstallions.com Novice Stakes.

Skipton-born William Haggas’ Merchant won the mile-and-a-half Sky Bet Handicap.