RYEDALE’S most celebrated sprinter of 2014 is set to make his eagerly-awaited reappearance at Haydock on Saturday.

G Force, who achieved the notable feat of winning his maiden and a Group 1 race within six months last year, returns to the scene of his most prestigious victory – the Betfred Sprint Cup - for the five-furlong Temple Stakes, which carries Group 2 status and a prize fund of £100,000.

Trained at Nawton by David O’Meara, the four-year-old will be aimed at many of the top sprint prizes this season and will have the option of the five-furlong King’s Stand Stakes and the Diamond Jubilee over six furlongs at next month’s Royal Ascot meeting.

“He’s done well and is an intended runner,” O’Meara reported this week. “He’ll be carrying a Group 1 penalty for his win in the Sprint Cup and there’s an argument he might be better over six furlongs, but Haydock looks a good place for him to start having won his Group 1 there.”

Danny Tudhope, who formed such a notable rapport with G Force last season, is keenly looking forward to his prized mount returning to the racecourse.

“I ride him out every day and he feels a stronger, more mature horse this year. He’s in good form.”

There will be no hiding place in the Temple Stakes. Superstar sprinter Sole Power is expected to run, as is Hot Streak, trained by Kevin Ryan, who has a huge weekend in store.

Ryan will be represented in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh on Sunday by The Grey Gatsby, winner of last year’s Dante Stakes, French Derby and the Irish Champion Stakes.

 

• THE WOW SIGNAL, last season’s outstanding Ryedale-trained juvenile, has been retired to stud without returning to racecourse action this year.

Forced to miss the Qipco 2,000 Guineas at the beginning of this month after falling foul of an injury, which has brought down the curtain on his career, The Wow Signal will now be prepared to start the second chapter of his life as a stallion.

Trainer John Quinn, understandably disappointed that his stable-star has been denied the chance to further his career this season, was quick to pay tribute to the colt’s achievements.

“It’s a real pity that injury has prevented him going on this year, but he was an outstanding two-year-old,” said Quinn, who placed The Wow Signal to gain a runaway success at Ayr on his debut before he proved his real worth.

He followed up in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, ridden by Frankie Dettori, and gained his most prestigious triumph in France in August when winning the Prix Morny at Deauville, again with Dettori riding for his retaining owners, Al Shaqab Racing.

“His form in the Prix Morny worked out fantastically well,” said Quinn, recalling his first Group 1 triumph as a trainer. “Hootenanny, who was second to him, went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and Erveyda, who finished third, recently won the French 1,000 Guineas.”

The Wow Signal will originally stand as a stallion in Australia, at Swettenham Stud in Victoria, before returning to France to be based at Haras de Bouquetot in Normandy.

 

• SO close, yet to so far, that was the outcome for Mattmu in last week’s Duke Of York Stakes when the Tim Easterby-trained colt failed by only a head to bag this coveted Group 2 prize on his first appearance of 2015.

It was the most thrilling of finishes, with the first six horses home, led by Glass Mountain, separated by heads and necks, and Easterby was understandably proud of Mattmu, who was bidding to become the first three-year-old to win this prize since Sampower Star in 1999.

“He ran a really good race,” said the Great Habton trainer, who had previously won this contest with Bollin Joanne and Pipalong. “He would have preferred the ground softer.”

That preference for easy underfoot conditions will determine Easterby’s plans for Mattmu, a Group 2 winner in France last autumn. The Commonwealth Cup, a new Group 1 race for three-year-olds, at Royal Ascot next month is an obvious target, ground permitting, but Easterby has also eyed an earlier opportunity at Haydock in the Sandy Lane Stakes. “We’ll have to see,” he said. “It depends what the ground is like.”

Easterby is in tremendous form at present. At Thirsk on Saturday, veteran sprinter Captain Dunne gained his 11th career success and his second course win in a fortnight, with Easterby describing the achievement as “fantastic”.

The gelding, ridden by Rachel Richardson, who was scoring on him for a fourth time, has won now more than £200,000 in prize money.

On Sunday at Ripon, Easterby was again on the mark with Gran Canaria Queen, a narrow winner under David Allan.

 

• DUSKY QUEEN proved that lightning can strike in the same place twice on Knavesmire by winning the corresponding race for the second successive year at the Dante Festival.

Ridden to victory last year by Ryan Moore, Dusky Queen was partnered last Friday by apprentice Sammy Jo Bell, who enjoyed an armchair ride on Richard Fahey’s smart filly.

Fahey enjoyed an excellent week, highlighted by Birchwood’s 11-1 success in the £50,000 Olympic Glory Conditions Stakes – the richest juvenile event of the season so far – at Newbury on Saturday.

 

• SUCCESSES with Algar Lad and Out Do provided York Racecourse’s reigning leading trainer, David O’Meara, with a flying start to his 2015 Knavesmire campaign during three days when the Ryedale fraternity fared pretty well.

Brawby trainer Geoff Oldroyd produced a 20-1 winner with the Barry McHugh-ridden Alfred Hutchinson, while Malton jockey Jason Hart posted a notable success on the Richard Guest-trained Udodontu, beating Nigel Tinkler’s progressive Normandy Barriere into second place.

Not so lucky was star Ryedale apprentice Jack Garritty. He was unshipped on his way to the start on the unruly Sir Chauvelin, trained by Jim Goldie, and broke a collarbone. He will be out of action for three weeks.

 

• MISU MAC, who opened her winning account at Southwell in March off a basement handicap rating of 23, has never looked back since.

Sensationally, she took her Southwell score to four wins from her last five starts on Monday off a mark of 66. The regular mount of apprentice Joe Doyle, Misu Mac is trained at Norton by Neville Bycroft.

Also successful at Southwell was Ryedale amateur rider Alyson Deniel, who skilfully cajoled Lexington Bay to gain a runaway success.

 

• SUZZANNE FRANCE, whose riding career was ended in a crashing fall at Redcar in May 2007, in which she suffered a brain injury and was left partially blind, is set to make a comeback at Kelso on Sunday – in a charity race in aid of Jack Berry House.

Now a trainer in Norton, France - who was in a coma for three days after her fall and spent several weeks in hospital, some of it in intensive care - is thrilled to be in the line-up aboard Destiny Blue in the one mile and five furlongs race.

“I couldn’t race-ride again after my accident because of my sight, but with this being a charity race, it’s different,” said the rider of 17 winners as an apprentice.

“This is a really good cause. If there had been a facility like Jack Berry House when I had my accident, it would have helped me enormously.”

France is aiming to raise at least £500 in sponsorship but is hoping to increase that amount to £1,000 through her Justgiving account, linked to the Injured Jockeys’ Fund.

France will be joined in the line-up by neighbour Kristin Stubbs, who also had success as an apprentice jockey before she took over the training licence from her mother, Linda in 2013. Stubbs is aiming to partner Magnolia Ridge, a horse she also trains.

Jack Berry House, recently opened in Malton, is the North’s rehabilitation and fitness centre for injured riders.