Easterby heads off with Silver Cup win

The larger than life 82-year-old made the announcement after his Ancient Cross defied top weight to land the William Hill Ayr Silver Cup, coming with a withering run under Pat Cosgrave to deny his nephew Tim’s Fast Shot.

It was Cosgrave’s very first winner for the Yorkshire handler.

The licence for Easterby’s Sheriff Hutton yard will pass to his 36-year-old son David, his long-time assistant and already a successful point-to-point trainer in his own right.

“It’s nice to have a big-race winner because my son David will taking over the licence next season. I’m sure he’ll do very well,” said Easterby senior.

“I might go and live abroad, somewhere like Tenerife but I’ll come back when I’ve spent all my money! I’m very pleased Tim finished second too, I’m his godfather but I like to beat him.”

Those last remarks were symptomatic of Easterby’s colourful quips that have so enlivened Yorkshire racing through the decades.

Famous for his humorous banter and colourful tales, he originally began his career with his trainer-uncle Walter near Towton before helping his brother Peter set up his stables at Great Habton where he would train five Champion Hurdle winners and two Cheltenham Gold Cup victors.

Easterby moved to Sheriff Hutton in 1955 and landed the Cesarewitch, one of the Flat’s top staying handicaps, with Boismoss six years later.

Famous for his ability to buy horses at bargain basement prices and turn them into champions, his Lochnager became Europe’s champion sprinter in 1976, winning the Temple Stakes, King’s Stand at Royal Ascot, the July Cup and York’s Nunthorpe, as Easterby became the first Northern trainer to win more than £100,000 prize money in a season.

Easterby rates this horse as the best sprinter that he has ever seen or trained, certainly superior to Hoof It who won a Stewards’ Cup at Glorious Goodwood two years ago. His finest hour came a year later when Mrs McArdy won the 1000 Guineas. Part of a consignment of eight yearlings worth £6,000, it was typical of Easterby that the other seven were no-hopers. She was sold at the end of the season for 154,000 guineas and sent to America.

Easterby also came agonisingly close to winning a Grand National in 1985 when his brave Mr Snugfit was caught in the final strides by the fast-finishing Last Suspect, who was carrying the Arkle colours of Anne, Duchess of Westminster.

The winner of a lifetime achievement award at the 2011 Go Racing in Yorkshire awards, Easterby also enjoyed Cheltenham Festival success with his Triumph Hurdle winner Peterhof, who he purchased out of a York seller for 800 guineas.

A plain-speaking Yorkshireman, Easterby regularly jokes that he should give putting lessons to the aforementioned Hoof It’s owner Lee Westwood.

His only disappointment at Ayr was that Hoof It was unplaced in the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup – this horse had regularly outworked Ancient Cross on the Sheriff Hutton gallops that have stunning views across Ryedale to York Minster on the horizon. The race went to Andrew Balding’s 20-1 shot Highland Colori and was a landmark triumph for his young apprentice rider Oisin Murphy, who is tipped by many to be a future champion.

It was the beginning of a remarkable four wins from four rides at odds of 9,260-1 for the 18-year-old, who then won on John Quinn’s Levitate, Silver Rime, for Linda Perratt, and then the finale on Cockney Sparrow for Norton-based Quinn.

Highland Colori had two-and-a-quarter lengths in hand on Louis The Pious from the Nawton yard of David O’Meara, with Bedale jockey Graham Lee third on the top weight Jack Dexter.

The Richard Fahey pair of Heaven’s Guest and Great St Wilfrid winner Baccarat filled out the places.

Malton-based Fahey will draw consolation from having the one-two in Newbury’s Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes with the Tony Hamilton-ridden Supplicant and Rufford. Supplicant is likely to be given the chance to prove his class in Newmarket’s Group One Middle Park Stakes next month, a race open to the top two-year-olds of 2013.

“I’m delighted with both horses. It got a bit tight close to home and he had to be professional but he won well in the end,” said Fahey.

“It’s a little bit embarrassing finishing second but that’s great as well. We thought before this if he won we’d go for the Middle Park, but he’ll have to be supplemented as it was trainer error that he wasn’t put in. To be fair, I didn’t think he’d be there, but he’s improved leaps and bounds.”

Another significant Yorkshire winner was Mark Johnston’s Oriental Fox, who won the Betfred Cesarewitch Trial at Newmarket. The beneficiary of a brilliant ride from Johnny Murtagh, he’s likely to go for the Cesarewitch itself next month.