Best celebrates winner at the first attempt after taking out licence

Four days short of a year after her husband was banned from racing, Suzi Best celebrated a winner with her first runner from their Lewes yard at Chelmsford on Friday evening.

Ertidaad, a 28-race maiden prior to this evening, scored at 14-1 in the 1m handicap under Charlie Bishop.

Held up in mid-division, the five-year-old came stands' side in the home straight and stayed on strongly in the closing stages to defeat Dukes Meadow by a neck.

Watch the race replay here

Ertidaad may return to Chelmsford next Thursday, while Best has also entered Austin Friars and Echo Brava, formerly trained by her husband, at Lingfield and Kempton on Wednesday.

Echo Brava was one of the two horses that Best was deemed to have instructed Paul John to stop in a novice hurdle at Plumpton in December 2015, for which the former trainer was suspended for six months last December.

Best's wife and brother Tom enrolled on a module 2 trainers' course at the Northern Racing College in August, with the former trainer saying in June: "Susanna is my assistant and has been with horses all her life.

"Tom won a Grade 1 at Aintree as a jockey [on Accipiter for Toby Balding] and has effectively shared the training with me from the start in what has been a joint operation."

Under the terms of his wife’s licence Best will not attend any racecourse where his wife has a runner.

He will not represent her in any way, or make any comment on the horses in her training, to the press or media.

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