Frontier shines as Fahey and Hamilton bring up doubles

Some of the colours carried in the 1m2f maiden would have done justice to Royal Ascot itself and Sir Robert Ogden's Northwest Frontier justified favouritism when accounting for Khalid Abdullah's promising newcomer Heron.

The gelded son of Galileo may have no luck with the fillies in the future but he held plenty of attraction for punters being backed from 5-2 in the morning into 4-6 at the off.

After looking in trouble at halfway, Northwest Frontier put his experience to good use to boss the runner-up in the last furlong and provide doubles for Richard Fahey and jockey Tony Hamilton.

Hugo Palmer trainer of Heron, said: "Ideally I'd wanted to run him over a mile and a half but there aren't any maidens at that trip just now. Hopefully that will bring him on."

Bradley boost

Nick Bradley Racing is already closing fast on last year's tally of 18 winners and the syndicate moved just two shy of that tally when Faradays Spark foiled a gamble on Give Em A Clump in the seller.

The Fahey-trained winner had run in a much stronger seller over six furlongs at York previously and improved for the extra furlong when scoring under Hamilton.

Bradley, who had a runner at Royal Ascot on Thursday, said: "That's our 16th of the season and things are going very well. We knew Faradays Spark would appreciate the step up in trip."

Thankfully, there was no bid for the winner and Bradley has already hatched a plan, adding: "There's another seller at Thirsk on July 5, and after that he could make his presence felt in nurseries."

Burke back in business

The feature Straight Mile Series Handicap Qualifier was supposed to be a match between the previous year's winner Abushamah and the well-backed favourite Town Charter but the finish was fought out by two of the outsiders in the five-runner contest.

The event was won in game fashion by Karl Burke's Mutahaady, who was giving the Middleham trainer his first win at the track since 2015 when outgunning Ginger Jack under apprentice Jordan Vaughan.

Punters grumpy

Punters also got it wrong in the following 7f handicap when the penalised 4-7 chance Call Me Grumpy was turned over by the second favourite Hajjam close home.

The Roger Varian-trained favourite was attempting to back up his win at Sandown only seven days previously but had no excuses.

Results and analysis