Hoof It heads Ryedale rivalry at York's 40th Macmillan Charity Day

The £200,000 Reg Griffin Memorial Trophy is a fitting tribute to the founder and long-time driving force behind this famed charity meeting, which has raised more than £4.5million for a whole host of worthy causes, principally Macmillan Cancer Support.

Run over six furlongs, the showpiece event has attracted a crackerjack of a field, which includes Hoof It, trained by Mick Easterby and owned by top international golfer Lee Westwood and his manager, Chubby Chandler.

Hoof It has already proved a revelation this season. Since being included in our ten to follow, he has rattled up a hat-trick of wins, victories at Beverley and Haydock sandwiching a Knavesmire success at the May meeting.

Easterby – whose succinct “I always thought he was good” description of Hoof It is proving a bit of an understatement – will be extra keen for his gelding to take this jackpot prize.

Inevitably, he has rocketed up the ratings since his winning spree began, but, having so far been confined to five furlongs, there is every chance Easterby can coax further improvement out of him now that he’s stepping back up to six furlongs.

The opposition, though, is fierce, from both national and local stables.

Tim Easterby, Mick’s nephew, has a strong hand with three entries, including Midnight Martini and Confessional, while Richard Fahey, York’s leading trainer for the last four years, has four entries, which include Coolminx and Falasteen.

In the 22nd Queen Mother’s Cup, Britain’s richest race for lady amateur riders, another bumper field is forecast.

Richard Fahey has three entries, recent course winner Trip The Light, Antigua Sunrise and The Last Alzao, while John Quinn has two, King Fingal and Southern Regent. Tim Easterby has just the one entry, but it’s a significant one, namely Crackentorp, whose run on this course in May and more recently at Haydock – placed each time – places him on the short-list for this £20,000 mile-and-a-half contest. An added incentive for the lucky winning rider is receiving her weight in champagne.

• Freddie Tylicki is facing up to spending the hectic mid-summer period of the Flat season on the sidelines after dislocating and fracturing his shoulder in a crashing fall at Musselburgh last week.

Last season’s champion apprentice, who lives in Norton, parted company with Sea Of Leaves soon after the start of the furiously-run Scottish Sprint Cup when his mount received a bump and clipped the heels of another runner, stumbling badly as a result.

Tylicki had no chance of staying aboard and was dramatically ejected from the saddle – at a speed of around 40mph.

Immediately attended by paramedics and the course doctor, Tylicki, who also suffered a blow just above his eyebrow which required two stitches, was found to have dislocated his shoulder, which was swiftly put back into place.

However, after being taken for further examination and X-rays to Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary, it was discovered his shoulder was also fractured.

“It feels sore, but I am basically feeling okay. It could have been worse,” said Tylicki, who, earlier this week, was waiting to hear whether the shoulder would have to be pinned to aid the healing process.

The chances are he will be out of action for at least a month, which is particularly bad luck at this busy time of the campaign.

• While Freddie Tylicki was being helped off the course at Musselburgh after the feature sprint, Tim Easterby was in the winners’ enclosure welcoming Hamish McGonagall, whose triumph under top-weight will earn him a crack at Listed and Group races in the coming weeks.

After adding the Scottish Sprint Cup, worth more than £30,000 to the winner, to another valuable race netted at York a fortnight earlier, Hamish McGonagall now boasts a career record of six wins from 31 starts and prize money earnings of more than £158,000.

“He lost his way for some reason last year, and just wasn’t right, but, this season, he’s bigger, stronger and better,” said Easterby. “He’s got bags of speed and is just a very good horse.”

Just how good, Easterby will soon discover. “We’ll have to be thinking in terms of Listed and Group races for him now,” said the trainer, who handles the gelding for a 10-strong syndicate named Reality Partnerships.

Easterby and his number-one jockey, David Allan, had earlier won another five-furlong handicap with Lost In Paris, but the one that got away was Cocktail Charlie, who contested the valuable juvenile event on the card and, after looking sure to win entering the final furlong, was nailed on the line by Excel Bolt, ridden by Norton jockey Tom Eaves for Bryan Smart, who rates the winner highly – just as Easterby does about Cocktail Charlie.

“I know Tim thinks the world of his horse, so to beat him is a very good achievement,” said Smart, who had seen Excel Bolt notch a five-lengths win on his debut on the same course last month. “He was impressive that day, but he didn’t learn a lot, unlike this time when, after being headed, he had to battle back.”

Smart, who bought Excel Bolt cheaply at Doncaster’s St Leger Sales after he’d been led out of the ring unsold at £5,000, has a real bargain on his hands. “He’ll go to Royal Ascot for either the Norfolk Stakes or the Windsor Castle,” added the Hambleton trainer.

It would be no surprise to see Cocktail Charlie lock horns with him again at the Royal meeting looking for, and perhaps gaining, revenge.

• Just how long does it take to transform an unbroken horse into a winner? Not as long as many might imagine, judged by the evidence of Clipthorne, who gained a debut success at Catterick last Friday – just 12 weeks after being broken in.

“That’s not bad going,” smiled Ollie Pears after the two-year-old had gained a 25-1 success under Barry McHugh.

“It’s not a surprise. We had a little bit on her,” revealed the Norton trainer, adding: “She’s only done four proper bits of fast work, but she’s been a natural from day one and she never had a saddle on her back until the first week of March.”

Catterick proved a lucrative meeting for the Ryedale fraternity.

Paul Midgley’s welcome revival after a spell when his horses were under a cloud, continued courtesy of sprinter Nomoreblondes, while fellow speedster Soto scored for trainer Mick Easterby and Thornton-le-Clay owners Bill and Jenny Tinning. Both winners were effectively ridden by Paul Mulrennan, who went on to record a notable handicap victory the following day at Epsom on the James Given-trained Dandino.

James Hetherton, who may be set to bow out very soon as trainer at Roger Fell’s Nawton yard – with former Ryedale jump-jockey David O’Meara set to take over the reins – had his name associated with three winners at last week’s Redcar meeting.

Simple Jim scored for the stable on the opening day, while 24 hours later a notable double was recorded by King’s Counsel and Pepper Lane, the pair being returned at 4-1 and 7-1 respectively.

O’Meara, who has been working at the yard for several months, is due to step into the number one position in a matter of days.

It could be a big weekend for the stable as their star performer Madam Macie is due to tackle Saturday’s £200,000 Reg Griffin Memorial Sprint Handicap at York, following a recent impressive win at Haydock.

• And finally, no horse who had been beaten in the Dante Stakes at York had ever gone on to Derby glory at Epsom – until last Saturday, when Workforce took apart his rivals under Ryan Moore to capture Britain’s most prestigious Classic by seven yawning lengths in a course-record time.

The victory of Workforce, who had finished second to Cape Blanco in last month’s Dante, after hanging badly on the fast ground, which caused the bit to slip through his mouth, was yet another reminder of the brilliance of Sir Michael Stoute, who has now trained five Derby winners in 30 years – only one fewer than the late Vincent O’Brien, widely acknowledged as the greatest trainer of all time.

Newmarket-based Stoute, whose Derby victors included the subsequently ill-fated Shergar in 1981, does, of course, have close links with Ryedale.

The born-and-bred Barbadian started his racing life in Britain as a pupil-assistant to Pat Rohan at Grove Cottage Stables in Norton, spending a couple of years at the yard before going on to assist Doug Smith and then strike out on his own in 1972.