The crowded summer fixture list spread the available horse population thinly over the weekend with meetings at Doncaster, Newbury, Newmarket, Nottingham in addition to our own, meaning fields rarely made double figures. But nevertheless, were were graced with some quality newcomers and a terrific three way photo for the mile handicap.
By way of aperitif, David & Nicola Barron produced Quillan to retain his unbeaten record in the Dobsons Gaskets EBF Novice, a 5f juvenile, under Kaiya Fraser. The Barrons are not known for their 2 year olds; rather for their older horses, and this was a first juvenile to run for the stable this year. They have high ambitions, the next step a valuable race at the Ebor fixture at York in August. The son of Kodi Bear has plenty of learning still to do, jinking on leaving the stalls, but showed good speed form the front, and when challenged readily found more. He is worth following.
The same comments can be applied to the three year old Master of Delphi, winner of the 6f maiden 30 minutes later. By contrast, Connor Beasley had this one in rear, but he too showed good speed to pick off the leaders a furlong out and put 5 1/2l between hm and the second, Valor Spirit by the line. Winner 17 of the season for John and Sean Quinn from their base at Norton.
Tim Easterby continued his good run at Ripon this year with a double, initiated by Poet’s Dawn and finished with Vega’s Virtue. Poet’s dawn is every owner’s dream; a robust gelding who turns up, season after season. He’s already run 10 times since April, including six times here at Ripon, two of which he’s finished in front. If only all racehorses were able to run this regularly!
Always in the first two, Sean Kirrane shook him up when joined by shorter-priced stablemate Yermanthere, to win by a half length in the 1m2f Sky Bet Go Racing in Yorkshire Festival Handicap.
It’s worth mentioning the Go Racing in Yorkshire Festival, this the second of nine days of racing across the county, culminating in two days at York with a musical finale. The festival serves to showcase the delightful variety of courses from Redcar in the far north to Doncaster in the south of the area.
Miler Vega’s Virtue is rapidly gaining a reputation for Ripon, her second course and distance victory in the handicap sponsored by our friends at Napoleons casino & restaurant. Always handy, David Allen pressed the leader at the furlong pole, and had acquired a lead of 3l by the lollipop. Of 66 winners to date this year, the Easterby team has scored no less than 10 times at Ripon.
Seven runners turned out for the day’s feature, a 1m4f handicap for horses rated up to 95. The field had attracted an Irish raider and a favourite from Newmarket among a field of Yorkshire-trained challengers. But it turned into a 1 1/2l result for the favourite as Daniel Muscutt brought the 7/2 jolly Salamanca City to the fore 200 yards out on the outer, leaving the remainder with no answer. James Fanshawe’s Newmarket yard is enjoying a solid season, just two off his total for the whole of 2025 already, his horses enjoying a 66% strike rate of win and place monies.
Happy connections from Owners Group 124 celebrate Salamanca City’s victory in the feature
Two remaining races made up the Saturday card, the first a mile handicap in which Micky Hammond’s Farasi Lane denied Tim Easterby a treble by the narrowest of margins. David Allen had Garden Oasis up with the pace from the off, but lost the race in the dying stride, Aiden Brookes conjuring an extra effort from Farasi Lane to win by a head on the line.
The afternoon concluded with a race for horses that have not won in 2026, over 6f, which saw a rare visit from Silvestre de Sousa to Ripon, the fourth of four rides in the afternoon for the three time Champion Jockey of 2015, ’27 & ’18. The globe-trotting Brazilian has clocked up over 2,000 winners worldwide, but this race was a far cry from the heady days of Ascot and Hong Kong. This is, however, just the sort of race for Tony Carroll, who made the long hike from Worcestershire to score with Act of Violence, a handy 2 3/4l winner, to bring him within two of a third consecutive seasonal century of winners.
