IT was a super Saturday for Ryedale horses last weekend with high-profile wins for Anglers Crag, trained in Norton by Brian Ellison, at Newcastle and for Spirit Dancer from Richard Fahey’s Musley Bank stables on the international scene in Saudi Arabia.

Anglers Crag was formerly trained in Somerset by David Pipe, and although quite a capable performer, he hadn’t won a race since February 2022. So owner Derrick Mossop, who also bred him, decided to try a change and in November he sent him north to Norton to be trained by Brian.

The transformation has been amazing because having been without a win for nearly two years he has now won four on the trot for Brian and his team at Spring Cottage.

That winning spree began at Carlisle just before Christmas when he was sent off at 7-1 to win a three-mile handicap chase, and duly did so, but had to battle hard to win by just a short head.

Little did we realise that despite the small margin of his victory that day, it was to be a platform of much better things to come which culminated at Newcastle on Saturday when he won the prestigious stamina test, the Eider Chase, in the hands of regular rider Henry Brooke.

But even there, it was a close-run thing. Although Anglers Crag travelled well for most of the four-mile one-furlong race, he was clear with one other when he ploughed straight through the second last fence.

He was lucky not to fall, but even so, it looked as though it had cost him the race, for suddenly instead of being level with the Scottish-trained Prince de Fichaux he was over three lengths behind him.

But like his rider and his trainer, Anglers Crag is a tough, brave competitor and he gradually made up the lost ground, although it was only on the long run after the last that he got his head in front, going on to win by a neck at the rewarding odds of 11-2.

“He made that bad mistake at the second last when he was going really well and he really had to battle to get back up,” said the winning rider who was also on board Brian’s previous Eider winner, Sam’s Adventure, back in 2021.

“The other horse had blinkers on, so I thought that if I could get past him I would stay in front, and that’s what happened,” he added.

Brian said: “It was some ride. Anglers Crag is not that easy as he has his own way of jumping. I told Henry that he won’t ride a better race all season. I thought it was all over when he made that mistake. It was just like Sam’s Adventure, he made a mistake and came back and won. That went through my mind after he made that error.

“A great deal of credit for this win goes to my travelling head lad Andy Robinson who has sorted him out at home. I had a horse for his owner once before but he unfortunately went lame and he said he would send me another.

“I wasn’t sure about him when he first came to me, but Derrick said he thought a bit about him but it hadn’t been working out for him. Coming here I thought he was the best horse in the race but you don’t know that until you run them. He is a talented horse and I think he will improve again.”

After winning such a prestigious chase like the Eider many trainers would have their thoughts focussed on next year’s Grand National. But not for the Newcastle-born Brian, his well-publicised ambition is to win the city’s biggest Flat race, the Northumberland Plate.

He said: “It’s great to win the Eider again with another nice horse, I just need to win the Plate here now!”

Although Anglers Crag won a first prize of £42,000 for his epic win, that was rather like small change compared to the whopping £945,000 picked up by the Richard Fahey-trained Spirit Dancer when winning the Howden Neom Cup at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia a few hours later.

The late-maturing seven-year-old, who was bred and is part-owned by the great former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, has clocked up plenty of air miles in the last few months, for back in November he travelled from Malton to Bahrain for their International Cup and did his connections proud by bringing the £500,000 first prize back to Britain, Oisin Orr, guiding him home by two and a quarter lengths from some of the best horses in Europe.

Saturday’s race was a stronger contest with challengers from all over the world, but he had pleased Fahey in his warm-up race when fourth in a valuable Group 1 contest in Dubai at the end of January so hopes were high of another good showing.

After giving him a patient ride, Oisin brought him through smoothly to take the lead inside the final furlong and then had enough in hand to hold the Japanese-trained outsider, Killer Ability, by a length.

Not surprisingly Sir Alex, who shares ownership with his friends Ged Mason and Peter Done, was jubilant after another big win by his home-bred, saying: "It’s absolutely fantastic. Richard said he hasn’t had a great deal of racing and is still improving and he was right, we saw that today.”

Sir Alex, who also has several jumps horses with Paul Nicholls, said that he started breeding racehorses somewhat by accident.

He explained: “I was over in Germany at trainer Andreas Wohler’s stables and he put the idea in my mind. I bought a mare called Queen’s Dream from him and a friend of mine then suggested that we start a small stud near Hemel Hempstead and I thought I’d give it a go.

“It has been great. We have some really good people looking after the horses and last week we got another foal, this one by that great stayer Stradavarius.”

Sir Alex has really bonded with Richard who said: “When I first started training for him I was a little bit humbled. I have had some fantastic conversations with him and he has been to the stable on several occasions. He’s just a wonderful man and you can see why he has been such a success.”

One Ryedale trainer who may have been a shade fortunate to have a good winner last week was Mark Walford who won the three-mile handicap hurdle at Doncaster on Wednesday with the prolific scorer Johnson’s Blue.

Having his first run since an unsuccessful foray over fences at Kelso in September, he was running a good race, but was in second place and looking held, when the leader Bridge North fell at the second last flight of hurdles. This left the Ryedale seven-year-old well clear of his rival, after which he and his regular rider Jamie Hamilton were left to stroll home by 11 lengths to gain a somewhat fortuitous success.