Spring took a step backwards at a draughty Ripon yesterday, but the card proved popular with owners and trainers, leading to a division of the 6f handicap and a resultant 8 race card, with 73 runners. Racegoers braving the keen wind were treated to some close finishes and honours shared across 8 separate sets of connections.
Brighton were playing away to Leeds some 40 miles south of the Garden Racecourse, so co-owner and Brighton Chairman Tony Bloom wasn’t present to see Zen Diva get off the mark in the On Course Bookmakers Welcome You to Ripon Novice Fillies race over 6f. Ralph Beckett’s chestnut filly has disappointed favourite backers in three preceding attempts to lose her maiden tag, but this time around, she was able to lengthen readily in the final furlong to put 7l between her and second-placed Black Orchid for the Fahey stable. The confidence of victory will hopefully spur some further improvement. Hector Crouch was in the plate.
By contrast, the opener was both a very different distance and a closer result too: an apprentice handicap over 2m. The staying handicap was one of two races supporting rugby charity Wooden Spoon’s Yorkshire branch. The six runners were tightly squeezed on the inner, but 3lb claimer Jack Nicholls held his nerve on Trojan Warrior for Jedd O’Keeffe, and found a gap a furlong out to reel in Scottish Dancer under Millie Wonnacott to win by a neck.
2025 was a breakthrough season for Nicholls with 25 winners, but he is already bearing down on that milestone with 7 months of 2026 to go, this his 15th winner. Racing runs in the blood, his father Adrian training at Sessay, his father David (Dandy) before him. Jack’s sister Millie is also an apprentice.
Charlie Johnston concluded a satisfactory weekend at the office by following a Newmarket winner on Saturday with another in the 6f Novice Fillies event, also run for Yorkshire Wooden Spoon with the backing of Paul Hammond Associates. With 30 winners in the bag, the Middleham yard is getting into its stride. The Can Can Queen had the legs on Bai Tong and Eevee Star under P J McDonald, albeit Bai Tong was slowly away and ran on well to close the winning margin to 1 1/4l.
Tim Easterby enjoyed a red letter day on our last fixture here, and is a difficult man to ignore at Ripon. If, however, you’d been the owner of 11 year old Poet’s Dawn, you’d be clapping the likeable Yorkshireman on the back for a shrewd purchase in the Easterby mould. The chestnut gelding has run a staggering 124 times, clocking up at least a winner a year since his 2yo days. He doesn’t seem to know how to run a bar race, winning from the front of the pack in the 1m2f handicap, yet another race sponsored by Napoleon’s Casino & Restaurant Leeds. He’s certainly won more battles than Buonaparte!
If you’re going to win races, what better way to celebrate than with a Beajolais Nouveau. The four year old of the same name has just done enough to satisfy her soubriquet, going clear to win the British EBF Premier Handicap over 6f by 2 1/4l, her first victory since juvenile year. Andrew Mullen was in the plate for Ben Haslam, another Middleham winner, and 18th of the season for Ben.
Another to make all throughout was Penny Ghent, who has found the winner’s enclosure a tricky destination until now. The six year old was running for the 27th occasion in the mile handicap, which must have tested his owner, Andrew Sparks’ patience. Persistence was finally rewarded here in a 5 1/2l win under Lewis Edmunds for Simon Whitaker, a first winner since last September.
The 6f handicap to celebrate Mark Leather’s 70th birthday divided at declaration stage, two divisions of 9 runners each resulting. Joanna Mason and Mark Winn fought out the finish of the first division on Gunalt Wavelength and Simba’s Pride respectively, Joanna getting up close home to win by a neck for the other Easterby stable of Michael & David.
Solar Cooper from Mark Walford’s yard was more authoritative in the finale, keeping on well to win by 1 1/4l from Battenburg Belle, to give Jack Garrity a 6th winner to the season.
