'So far, so good' - Baryshnikov and Beasley keep Barrons in business

Tuesday: Pontefract

Teaming up with her father is working all right for Nic Barron, who scored the biggest win of her new training partnership when Baryshnikov landed the £25,000 1m2f handicap.

It was a second victory from just five runners since she and David Barron, who has trained for more than half a century, first appeared together on the licence at Maunby House stables in Thirsk.

"So far, so good," said Nic Barron, 51, who has long worked in the yard and accompanied her father at the sales before she left school.

"Dad's been pushing it for a while, but I had two small children. Now they've got to an age when it's easier to do and it's a continuation of something that's been happening for a long time."

Baryshnikov came from behind under Connor Beasley to catch the enterprisingly ridden Pride Of America inside the final furlong to win his fifth race since being bought for 17,000gns in the autumn of 2019.

"He was 20-1 so it wasn't expected," Nic Barron said. "On paper it looked quite a good race but I think our tactics won it. We did our own thing and it worked.

"He's very consistent, he was a good buy and he's won two every year we've had him. Even on a bad day, he's never out the back."

Savvy success

Savvy Victory was a fitting winner of the race named after High-Rise, who won here on his way to success in the Derby in 1998.

"It's a strange coincidence that the maiden is called the High-Rise because he was a horse we rescued when Luca Cumani had a fire at his bottom yard," trainer Sean Woods recalled. "He was one that we got out. And he came out and won the Derby."

Savvy Victory is entered for Epsom himself and Woods said: "He might be up in Yorkshire again soon, maybe for the Dante. He's a good horse but it's hard to judge today as they weren't going quick enough for him and the ground was tacky."

Sean Woods: 'He might be up in Yorkshire again soon, maybe for the Dante'Credit: David Carr

Cold-call collects

Don't ignore every cold-calling salesman. John Quinn listened to the patter on the other end of the line and was rewarded with a 20-1 winner.

That was the price at which Magna Moralia, owned by the trainer's family, won the apprentice handicap under a patient ride from Rhys Clutterbuck.

The winning jockey, who is based with Gary Moore, was having his first ride for Quinn, who revealed: "His agent Nicky Adams rang and said 'he's very good' and I said 'I'll trust you'. It was just the job.

"They went very quick and Rhys gave the horse a particularly good ride."

Tacky start

Jockeys riding at the first meeting of the year were critical of the ground, which they variously described as dead, tacky and worse.

The track's managing director Norman Gundill said: "It's the way the weather has gone in the last month or so.

"There hasn't been much chance for the grass to grow of late, it's been bitterly cold and it's too early to put fertiliser on. When it was warm we were getting heavy dews and we had a cover of snow last week.

"And the water table is so high it doesn't take much rain to turn the ground soft and tacky."

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