Alpinista digs deep for York victory, Shouldvebeenaring justifies backing

It was also the fifth time in a row the gutsy Kirsten Rousing-owned mare has triumphed at Group One level, with the success for the brave daughter of Frankel a first Group One on home soil for trainer Sir Mark Prescott since Marsha landed the Nunthorpe at the same track in 2017.

Irish Oaks winner Magical Lagoon and fellow raider La Petite Coco led the seven-strong field along in the early stages, with Luke Morris always in the slipstream of the leaders aboard the 7-4 favourite.

Magical Lagoon was the first to crack as the race developed in the straight and having beaten off the challenge of La Petite Coco with a furlong to go, Alpinista stuck her head out and battled to the line to repel Aidan O'Brien's Tuesday, who finished second at 7-2.

A winner at Saint-Cloud prior to this win on the Knavesmire, all roads now lead back to France for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, with Betfair and Paddy Power both leaving Alpinista unchanged in the market at 8-1.

"They (Group Ones) are all great, but they hard to come by. For a smallish stable, every five or six years you get good ones come along and it's tremendous when it happens," said Prescott. "We trained this one's dam, grand-dam and great grand-dam. It's been a marvellous family.

"The original intention was to go Coronation (Cup) and King George, but she wouldn't come (in her coat) in time for the Coronation, so it then became Saint-Cloud (for the Prix Ganay) and then either here or the Vermeille.

"But Miss (Kirsten) Rausing (owner-breeder) was very keen to come here as she (Alpinista) hadn't won a Group One in England. She has really done it all now, she's won Group Ones in England, France and Germany."

He went on: "That (Arc) has always been her aim. Last year we rather patted ourselves on the back for being so clever winning three Group Ones in Germany, then when the one behind us (Torquator Tasso) came and won the Arc we rather felt we might not have been as clever as we thought we were!

"When she stayed in training this year that was always the aim."

Shouldvebeenaring justified some lumpy bets when getting up late to win the £250,000 Goffs UK Harry Beeby Premier Yearling Stakes at York.

A winner at Ripon on his second start, he was backed into 5-2 favouritism despite a field of 19 heading to post.

Very few of them got into it, in truth, as Tim Easterby's Northcliff made a bold bit off the front end, battling the challenges of Dare To Hope and Washington Heights entering the final furlong.

Washington Heights eventually wore down Northcliff but Sean Levey got a great tune out of Richard Hannon's Havana Grey colt and got there just in time to win by a neck.

It was a fifth win in the race for Hannon since 2016 and a fourth for Levey.

Hannon said: "He pulled a muscle behind and had sore shins and it was a real struggle to get him here.

"In his last couple of bits of work I put him right in at the deep end and he worked with Classic and Persian Force. He came up there upsides them, which I didn't expect.

"He's not in the Middle Park, I haven't put him in anything but he's a black-type horse, for sure.

"It's good for Middleham Park (owners) as they've been great supporters of ours over the years and that is what these races are about."

Blue For You finished with a flourish to deny stablemate Escobar in the Clipper Logistics Handicap.

Following three successive runner-up finishes, Blue For You was the 11-2 favourite to secure a deserved victory, but briefly looked booked for minor honours once more after Escobar swept to the front.

Once the gap came, however, the market leader picked up to run down his fellow David O'Meara-trained runner - getting up to score by a head in the hands of Danny Tudhope.

O'Meara said: "I don't know if I've got a knack for winning these races, we had six in there so we had a good chance, but late on they were getting in each other's way.

"Blue For You has been an unlucky loser. He'd been blocked a couple of times, then Escobar looked like he was going to win. Trying to watch six was quite hard!

"Blue For You was second at Goodwood and he'd have beaten Orbaan if he'd got a run that day. Orbaan has run another good race today (finished fourth), but Blue For You got the splits.

"It's a hard job to keep everybody happy, but at least some of them ran OK."