A tale of two comebacks as Joe Fanning and long-absent Qitaal return to winning ways

Talk about comebacks. Joe Fanning rode his first winner since spending four weeks out on Qitaal, a horse who had not raced for nearly two years.

The jockey, who returned on Saturday from a spell on the sidelines with concussion, took the £20,000 1m2f handicap on a five-year-old who was having only his second run since 2021. He had not been seen since his only start for Ken Condon at Naas back in May 2022.

"It's good to get back," Fanning said. "That's my third ride and it's nice to get up and running."

Trainer Charlie Johnston was delighted that his faith in Qitaal had been rewarded. He added: "It's good to have Joe back in the winner's enclosure.

"We trained him as a two-year-old but sadly at the time Shadwell were cutting back and sold all of our horses. I made as strong a case as I could that this was one they didn't want to be letting go of and when Robert Ng bought him I contacted them and asked if there was any chance this horse could stay with us. We think a lot of him.

"He went to Ireland and was only seen once in two years and when I saw his name in the Tattersalls August catalogue I thought I had to see him. He was a bit of a shell of the horse who left us but when he was making 4,000gns I couldn't leave him behind, so I bought him back and threw him to the field for the rest of last year."

Charlie Johnston and Joe Fanning struck with QitaalCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Qitaal showed little sign of rustiness as he scored by a length and a half at 14-1. Johnston said: "We've been bringing him back this spring, his work had been good and that wasn't a surprise, although I worried the ground might find him out after two years off.

"He's a horse we liked three years ago and now he's finally fulfilling that potential."

Spain leaves rivals spinning

Gemma Tutty's North Yorkshire yard became the first to win two Flat turf races in 2024 with King Of Spain's success in the £20,000 three-year-old 1m2f handicap.

It followed victory for Tutty in the Spring Mile on Saturday with Look Back Smiling, and came after a successful spell on the all-weather for the trainer.

Tutty, in her third season since taking over the licence from her mother Karen, said: "To be on seven winners at this time of year is absolutely amazing and the first two days of the turf season couldn't have gone much better!"

King Of Spain, a winner at Wolverhampton last month, is a half-brother to Mostly Cloudy, who progressed continually and won five races in a row in 2022, having cost 31,000gns as a yearling.

"We don't have massive numbers but we bought horses like him a couple of years ago, so we always hoped this was going to be our year," Tutty said. "It's lovely, the owners have been patient and they've been rewarded as we have some nice horses for this season.

"We have about 20, a couple more than last year and some rated higher than we would normally have. Hopefully they'll keep progressing and we'll have a nice one on our hands."

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