James Tate has high hopes for improving colt Wait To Excel

Saturday: Ripon

Trainer James Tate is hopeful there is much better to come from Wait To Excel after the colt made a successful first foray into handicap company.

The 6-4 favourite travelled smoothly through the race in the hands of Ben Curtis and always appeared in control in the final furlong of the 1m2f contest.

“He’s a big horse, about 17 hands, and he loves eating but he’s taking his races so well and progressing nicely,” said Tate.

“Some of the others appeared to be coming to him in the closing stages but he was just looking around and idling after coming to win the race.

“I hope he will be out again in a few weeks’ time and he will be able to go back to a mile and a half in time.”

Alright Sunshine has proved a hard horse to win with but this track seems to bring out the best in him and he made it two wins from three starts at the course when collecting the day's biggest prize in the 1m4f handicap.

The 9-2 shot kept on gamely under Billy Garritty to deny the persistent challenge of Global Heat by a neck.

The stewards were busy after the first-past-the-post Wen Moon twice appeared to hamper the favourite and eventual third Harry Brown in the 5f juvenile maiden.

They ruled that the result would not be reversed but handed Wen Moon’s jockey Andrew Mullen a two-day ban for careless riding.

Duran Fentiman ended the day in style, landing a 170-1 hat-trick with victories aboard Motarajel (12-1), Gibside (5-2) and Pepsi Cat (11-4) in the last three races.

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