RYEDALE trainers’ domination of the big European sprint races continued on Saturday when Art Power from Tim Easterby’s Great Habton yard won the Group 1 Qipco British Champions Sprint on Champions Day at Ascot.

He became the third locally-trained horse to win a Group 1 sprint this season following in the footsteps of Shaquille, who won the Commonwealth and July Cups, and Highfield Princes who gained that amazing win in the Prix de L’Abbaye de Longchamp earlier this month.

Saturday’s race, which carried a first prize of £283,000, was originally the target of Shaquille, attempting to redeem his lofty reputation after a disappointing run at Haydock last month.

However, earlier in the week, his trainers Julie Camacho and her husband Steve Brown, felt that he wasn’t quite in top form so the two decided not to risk him in what was going to be a big test for him at Ascot.

He would probably have been favourite, so his non-participation made the race a little more open, although Frankie Dettori’s mount Kinross was the warm favourite to win it for the second year in a row with the Ryedale runner Art Power rather unconsidered by punters and being sent off at 40-1.

However, in contrast to his previous at Longchamp, Art Power jumped smartly from the stalls and was soon bowling along in the lead. 

He held that advantage for the first five of the six furlongs but ominously with just 200 yards left to run Frankie had the favourite, Kinross, alongside him looking almost sure to win.

That looked even more a certainty when Kinross took a narrow lead but on Saturday Art Power was not for beating, and he and David Allan rallied to great effect and after regaining the lead inside the last 50 yards went on to win by a neck. 

It was the first Group 1 success for both David and Art Power and a delighted rider said afterwards: “He loved the ground today. He broke well and was always going well, but he’d been in front for a long time and when Frankie joined us, he ran on again. 

“He’s tried to win a Group 1 several times and I am delighted that he has finally done it. He rarely runs a bad race and everything was right for him today.”

Tim Easterby said: “He looked great today. He lost a lot of weight when he ran in France, where he banged his head on the stalls, but he’s come back. He’s just brilliant. 

“We gelded him in January because we couldn’t get a job for him at stud. He takes everything well and is great to train.

“I thought David gave him a fantastic ride. They broke well and when he travels like that, he’s hard to beat.”

The race was a triumph for northern stables because the third, Spymaster, and the fourth, Swingalong, were both trained at Middleham by Karl Burke.

Overall Champions Day was an excellent one for Northern yards as they were responsible for the winners of three of the six races. 

After his two horses ran so well in that Sprint final, Karl Burke took the following race, the Group 1 Fillies and Mares Champion Stakes with the tough Poptronic, ridden by Sam James, and in the concluding Balmoral Handicap, worth £103,000 to the winner, The Gatemaster, trained at Middleham by Charlie Johnston, made all the running under the veteran Joe Fanning to round off a fine day for the north.

Although Richard Fahey didn’t have a runner at Ascot, he also had a good day when the tough veteran Vintage Clarets landed the £20,000 William Hill Dash at Catterick in the hands of Oisin Orr.