TWO unlikely heroes from Ryedale hit the racing jackpot by scooping more than £375,000 in prize money between them in the space of 30 extraordinary minutes.

One horse was orphaned soon after birth and reared by hand, the other was bought with little opposition at Doncaster Sales out of the bargain basement, but together they made a major impact on a spectacular day for their respective trainers, who sent out a mind-blowing nine winners between them.

Mayson, trained by Richard Fahey , took the top honours, belying his 20-1 odds by running out a five lengths winner of the Group 1 Darley July Cup, worth £256,329, at rain-sodden Newmarket on Saturday.

Then, at Newbury, Body And Soul, trained by Tim Easterby , beat 21 rivals to claim the Weatherbys Super Sprint and a first prize of £122,925.

Incredibly, Mayson was one of four Saturday winners for Fahey, who also secured a Chester treble, courtesy of Majestic Myles, Boom And Bloom and Our Boy Jack, while Easterby went one better with five winners. Body And Soul was supported by York scorers Hamish McGonagall and Royal Rascal, and by Grissom and Collateral Damage, who won at Hamilton’s evening meeting.

Mayson’s win in the showpiece event on the busiest Flat-racing Saturday of the year was something special.

It was Fahey’s first-ever Group 1 triumph in Britain and, fittingly, the colt was ridden by his long-time stable-jockey, Paul Hanagan, now based in Newmarket after securing the plum job as retained rider to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum earlier this year.

Fahey and Hanagan’s only previous Group 1 victory had been gained in France with Wootton Bassett in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp in 2010. To now repeat that feat – together – on home soil was a superlative achievement.

Hanagan punched the air in triumph after crossing the line, his delight all too real. Two weeks earlier, he had been stretchered off the same course after an horrific fall amid fears he had broken a hip or an arm and that his season could be over. He escaped with soft tissue damage and was riding again within a week.

“That was some buzz,” he said, “To win a Group 1 in Britain is a relief, a weight off my shoulders. It was like riding my first winner all over again, it was that special.”

Hanagan was swift to deflect the glory to Fahey. “I owe Richard so much. I worked for him from when I was 17 and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be in the position I am now,” declared the dual champion jockey.

“It was just a great week, a week I’ll never forget. On the Thursday I rode my first Group 2 for Sheikh Hamdan and then to follow up with a Group 1 for Richard on a horse we’ve always believed in was something else.”

Fahey has now taken Mayson to Newmarket three times this year and won with him on each occasion, following Listed and Group 3 victories in the spring. This Group 1 triumph was as good as it gets.

“Brilliant,” he said. “I couldn’t believe he was 20-1. That was a joke price. There were good reasons why he didn’t perform to his best on his previous two starts. In the Duke Of York Stakes at York, he got upset at the start and got a hind leg up on the stalls, and then at Newcastle last time, the ground was virtually unraceable and he got bogged down. They had a lot of rain at Newmarket, but it was nowhere near at bad as Newcastle, and he handled it well.”

Fahey added: “It’s fantastic for David and Emma Armstrong, who own him and bred him. They are great supporters of the yard and this horse means the world to them.”

Mayson was left orphaned at three months old and was hand reared, yet he has developed into a top-notch sprinter and can one day look forward to a stud career as a stallion.

In the meantime, he will be considered for four options this season – the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville, York’s Nunthorpe Stakes, the Haydock Park Sprint Cup and the Prix de l’Abbeye at Longchamp.

Only minutes after Mayson had crossed the line, Fahey struck in the Listed race at Chester with Majestic Myles, given an astute front-running ride by Freddie Tylicki to run out a wide-margin winner of the same race the gelding had won 12 months earlier.

Tylicki also won on Boom And Bloom, while Laura Barry, who is attached to the Fahey yard, completed a resounding afternoon for the Musley Bank stable with a narrow victory on Our Boy Jack.

The sum total of the four-timer elevated Fahey past Richard Hannon and into third place in Britain’s trainers’ championship behind Aidan O’Brien and John Gosden with prize money earnings in excess of £1,244,896.