Silver Samurai puts rivals to sword in Newmarket's Grey Horse Handicap

A 50 per cent increase in prize-money yielded a near maximum turnout of 15 for the annual Grey Horse Handicap, tripling the size of the field that went to post last year, and victory went to topweight Silver Samurai.

Ironically, Marco Botti entered the six-year-old only because he thought there would be few runners, but it all worked out in the end when the 17-2 shot from off the pace to cut down front-running favourite Divine Libra close home.

The Newmarket trainer and jockey Andrea Atzeni were successful in the unique race for the first time.

Silver Samurai is "a bit of a monkey" according to Botti and all combinations of headgear have been exhausted in an attempt to relight his fire, including an unsuccessful attempt in a red hood in the preliminaries here.

Botti said: "We've had runners in this race before but never come close to winning. It's not a bad year to do it as they've put on another £10,000 this time. He can do it when he wants to and it wasn't that long ago that he was rated 99."

Big day for Tuer

Grant Tuer watched his filly Sophia's Starlight land the Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon on TV at the July course as he had opted to travel south for the outing of Barrolo in the 1m2f handicap.

In the end he enjoyed double celebrations after the 9-2 chance struck under Adam Farragher for enthusiastic Yorkshire owners The Weighing Game.

Barrolo and Adam Farragher after winning the 1m2f handicap

Tuer said: "The Great St Wilfrid was easily our biggest win to date and this is just the icing on the cake."

Syndicate member Phil Brierley said: "We have six with Grant and a load of us came down from York. It was well worth the three-and-a-half-hour drive and it's been a great day for the stable." 

Night sparkles again

Harry Davies had his first ride without his claim on bottomweight Grand Providence in the £50,000 fillies' handicap but was forced to give best to James Doyle on Night Sparkle despite a gallant effort.

The Irish dual-purpose performer was completing a hat-trick on the Flat for Michael O'Callaghan after a journey that began on Thursday morning.

O'Callaghan's representative Kylian O'Shaughnessy said: "It took us six hours from Holyhead to get here but it wasn't as long a trip as going to Newbury last time and it was worth it."

Frankel factor

The day after the running of the Frankel maiden on the July course, a relative of the superstar landed the 6f novice in the shape of Array.

Having finished runner-up on his first two outings, the Juddmonte homebred was very much on a 'get a win on the board' exercise at odds of 2-13 under David Probert. 

Array and David Probert after landing the odds in the 6f novice

Andrew Balding has mopped up several juvenile races at the summer track in recent weeks and his wife Anna Lisa said: "That was like a piece of work for Array, whose dam is a half-sister to Frankel. He won everywhere bar the line at Goodwood last time and it was nice for him to get a win on the board. He has some nice entries and a big future."

Read these next:

Dewhurst next for 'classy' Henry Longfellow as Aidan O'Brien continues remarkable Futurity record 

'She's a revelation' - rapid improver Sophia's Starlight wins thrilling Great St Wilfrid 

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