AN entire decade has flown by since a Ryedale trainer flew the flag in the final major handicap of the Flat turf season. But, as the campaign draws to a close at Doncaster on Saturday, the local fraternity will be out in force in a bid to put the record straight.

The target is the £70,000 Betfred November Handicap and Brian Ellison, the man who sent out Carte Diamond to claim first prize in 2004, is this year represented by Manhattan Swing, who turns his attentions from hurdles as the Flat curtain comes down.

A switch of codes might well work the oracle for this talented former Dermot Weld inmate, who comes from a yard in form. Ellison sent out Full Day to land Listed-race glory in last Friday’s Wensleydale Hurdle at Wetherby to have the Norton trainer dreaming of Cheltenham in March, while the battle-hardened Dream Walker scored for Ellison at Newmarket the following day.

Whatever the fate of Manhattan Swing, he will be lining up against a maximum field of runners in one of the most hotly-contested handicaps of the season.

The Ryedale challenge may also include Tim Easterby’s mud-loving Ardlui, who will have conditions in his favour as he aims to step up on his recent third-placed effort on Town Moor, and David O’Meara’s Fattsota, narrowly beaten at York last month. Richard Fahey’s recent course winner Latenightrequest, another horse who thrives on soft ground, could also be in the field, but she does have an alternative Listed-race target earlier on the Doncaster programme.

Geoff Oldroyd sent out Jamaican Bolt to win on this course a fortnight ago and the sprinter is likely to be back on Saturday for an ambitious tilt at Listed company in another of the feature races, the Wentworth Stakes, also on the cards for Mick Easterby’s Aetna and the Julie Camacho-trained Diescentric.

Megan Carberry is set to be a winner at Doncaster on Saturday, no matter how she faces on the racecourse.

The Ryedale rider, who has enjoyed an excellent first season in Britain, attached to the Brian Ellison stable, is in an outright lead going into the final round of the 2014 Go Racing In Yorkshire Apprentice Series and is therefore an assured winner of a coveted first prize.

Carberry, following in the footsteps of last year’s winner, Gary Mahon, who was apprenticed to Tim Easterby, will receive a sponsorship from Go Racing In Yorkshire worth £1,500 in cash, plus £500 in equipment from Wendy Hoggard’s White Rose Saddlery in Norton. She will also be able to take part in promotions with Go Racing In Yorkshire in 2015, helping her to maintain her profile, while the public will be able to follow her exploits via a blog on the Go Racing In Yorkshire website.

Presentations, of course, will be aplenty on Saturday s as yet another Flat season draws to a close. Whether a Ryedale trainer will again be on the receiving end – and not before time - of the one following the November Handicap remains to be seen.

 

• AURORE D’ESTRUVAL may still be a fairly unfamiliar name in these parts, but not for long, judging on her smooth and stylish Listed race success at Wetherby last Saturday, watched by her admiring trainer John Quinn.

It speaks volumes of the high regard Quinn has for the four-year-old that he secured the services of none other than Tony McCoy to partner her in the OLBG.com Mares’ Hurdle. The 19-times champion jockey promptly enjoyed the proverbial armchair ride on the former French-trained performer, who jumped fluently and won, without being asked a serious question, by ten lengths.

Quinn had won the corresponding race 12 months earlier with his subsequent Scottish Champion Hurdle winner Cockney Sparrow, who went on from Wetherby to the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on the final Saturday in November and finished second to My Tent Or Yours.

“I wouldn’t rule out going to Newcastle with this mare,” said a delighted Quinn. “She would love a track like that.”

An exciting future awaits Aurore d’Estruval. “ She’s a very good jumper and is only four-years-old,” added Quinn, clearly looking forward with relish at the rest of the season and one which could see this high-class performer Cheltenham-bound in March for the Grade 1 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle.

 

• MALCOLM JEFFERSON'S decision to step Secrete Stream up to two and a half miles at Wetherby paid rich dividends when the smart gelding ran out a comfortable winner under Brian Hughes.

The five-year-old, well regarded in the Jefferson stable, had been a beaten favourite over the minimum trip on the same course a couple of weeks earlier.

“We will leave him over hurdles this season and there could be a nice race in him somewhere,” said the Norton trainer, clearly hoping that a valuable handicap at Cheltenham in March might come under Secrete Stream’s radar.

Jefferson will be paying a much earlier visit to the Prestbury Park course – on Saturday week – with Attaglance.

“We are aiming him at the Paddy Power Gold Cup again,” he said. “I was happy with his first run back at Market Rasen and I have been happy with him since.”

Attaglance finished fourth in last year’s Paddy Power and looked an unlucky loser at last season’s Cheltenham Festival – where he had won over hurdles in 2012 – when going down by half a length to Present View after being badly hampered on the run-in.

 

• HAVING spent four days last week at Newmarket’s Horses-in-Training Sales looking for new stock, the evergreen Mick Easterby, at the age of 83, could have been excused if he’d opted to bypass last Friday’s Wetherby meeting.

Not a bit of it. The Sheriff Hutton trainer turned-up and duly completed a notable double with Lightening Rod, who fairly bolted-up by seven lengths in the handicap hurdle at 8-1, and 20-1 shot Shadows Lengthen, who had an identical margin to spare in the Listed handicap chase.

“That was grand,” said Easterby, who has since landed a 28-1 success with Pivotman at Wolverhampton earlier this week. “Lightning Rod has lots of speed and doesn’t want to be in front too long,” he explained. “Shadows Lengthen is a good horse on his day and Brain Harding gave him a lovely ride.”

 

• G FORCE is to stand as a stallion at Ireland’s Tally-Ho Stud – but the good news for racing fans and particularly supporters and connections of the top Ryedale sprinter, he will have another year on the track before beginning his new duties.

A horse who began this season as a once-raced maiden, G Force, trained by David O’Meara, has made a remarkable rise through the sprinting ranks and won in Group 1 company in September when landing the Haydock Park Sprint Cup.

Although unable to build on that triumph on Champions Day at Ascot a couple of weeks ago, when a poor draw and soft ground impacted on his chances, G Force remains a horse of infinite potential to enjoy further success at the top level. Indeed, he may well turn out again this year with a trip to Hong Kong next month under consideration for him, as it is for his stablemates, Move In Time, winner of the Prix de l’Abbeye and prolific winner Custom Cut.

G Force will stand alongside stallions like Society Rock, Bushranger, Zebedee and Kodiac at Tally-Ho Stud, which is situated in Co Westmeath.