York crowd record beaten

IT was, perhaps, fitting that local heroes Richard Fahey and Paul Hanagan should win the final race of a record-breaking year at the incomparable York the racecourse.

The leading trainer and jockey respectively, 100-30 favourite Tepmokea was cheered home by a 21,531-strong crowd – an 11 per cent increase on the corresponding fixture 12 months ago.

This saw the total attendance for the year at York reach 358,035, an increase of 36,279 on last year's record attendance.

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"To set another record in a year when the economic climate remains so challenging for everyone is testimony to the support we have received from racegoers at York and gives us great delight," said William Derby, chief executive and clerk of the course.

"There is no single reason for the strong performance. We strive to offer quality racing and keep investing in the facilities and experience of coming racing at York. However the racing is always at the heart of the day."

Though the Malton combination of Fahey and Hanagan had to wait until the final race of the two-day meeting before enjoying a winner, the competitive nature of Saturday's Coral Sprint Trophy card was, once again, indicative of the quality of racing that has become York's hallmark. There are simply no races where the favourite only has to turn up to win.

Indeed, it was a rising star of the training ranks, David Simcock, who won the feature when the lightly-weighted Fathsta (14-1) ran out an impressive triumph under Brazilian-born and Yorkshire-based jockey Silvestre de Sousa, who is on the brink of riding a century of winners.

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Hanagan's mount Irish Heartbeat was third, the best of Fahey's five entries.

More significantly, Simcock confirmed that stable star Dream Ahead, the winner of two Group One races, will take on Henry Cecil's 'wonder horse' Frankel in Saturday's Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket.

Thirsk trainer David Barron may have been out of luck in the big handicap sprint with Poet's Place and Colonel Mak, but he sprang a 33-1 surprise in the Coral TV Handicap with Tres Coronas under Graham Gibbons.

Greg Fairley recorded an eyecatching double aboard the Mark Johnston-trained Namibian and Act Of Kalanisi, with the latter heading for next Saturday's Cesarewitch.

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Yet the most heartwarming victory was Katla's victory in the Coral Rockingham Stakes at York.

She is trained in Ireland by John Grogan. Not only did he breed Katla, but she is the only horse that he trains and he even had to drive the horsebox to Yorkshire in a journey that took 11 hours.

Joking that his 100 per cent strike-rate at York is better than the record of his fellow countryman Aidan O'Brien, the top Irish trainer, Grogan admitted that he only entered his filly, a 5-1 chance, in the hope that she would be placed.

"I just can't believe it. I lost my phone jumping up and down," said Grogan.