FOLLOWING a slightly disappointing Royal Ascot, Richard Fahey and his powerful team at Musley Bank have been in great form in the past fortnight with a series of winners, notably Wootton’Sun who captured the valuable bet365 Old Newton Cup at Haydock Park on Saturday.

Placed on his three previous starts this season, notably on his previous outing when runner-up at Pontefract, the Steve Bradley-owned four-year-old was sent off a well-backed 15-2 chance to land Saturday’s £77,000 first prize.

Ridden by Middleham-based veteran Joe Fanning, who is one of the season’s leading jockeys, Wootton’Sun was always in the leading group, and striking for home with two furlongs left to run, he ran on gamely to hold on by half a length from the Andrew Balding-trained Scampi, with a host of other challengers close up behind in what was an exciting finish.

“It’s fantastic,” admitted his trainer afterwards. “Although we had the race in mind for him at the start of the season we didn’t think that he would be rated high enough to get a place in the field. It was a bonus that he did and even better to win it. This was his ‘Derby’.”

He was the second big-race winner in the space of a remunerative eight days for Fahey and his team, the sprinter Vintage Clarets having landed the featured Gosforth Park Cup on the Tapeta surface at Newcastle eight days earlier. Although he had won round Chester on his previous start, Vintage Clarets had never previously run on an all-weather surface and was allowed to go off at 12-1 in the 14-strong field.

Partnered by Yorkshire-based Paul Mulrennan, another rider enjoying a fine season, he was always prominent in the five-furlong event and striking for home over a furlong out, he ran on to beat the Middleham-trained Korker by a length and a quarter in an all-Yorkshire finish.

In between those two big race wins, the Fahey team had been in fine form, chalking up another win at Newcastle the following day when Adeb, the mount of Malton-based Billy Garritty, landed the 7f handicap by a neck from his stable companion Zip in an all-Fahey finish.

Two days later Gannon Glory, who was tried in cheekpieces for the first time, won the sprint handicap at Pontefract in the hands of Oisin Orr, getting home by a neck from the Great Habton-trained 40-1 shot Impeller, ridden by Duran Fentiman.

The good run of the Fahey team continued at Thirsk on Wednesday when She’s A Gambler, also ridden by Oisin, made it two wins from two starts when landing the six-furlong juvenile novice by a neck at 11-8 despite having almost taken off with her rider on the way to the start.

Her trainer said: “Oisin couldn’t get his feet in the irons going to the start and she got away from him for a couple of furlongs. She’s just a little bit quirky, but she can gallop and I think she’s a smart filly.”

After a couple of near misses with Slippin Jimmy and Khunan, who were both beaten half a length into second place on the first afternoon of Haydock’s three-day meeting, La Feile and jockey Connor Murtagh made all the running to win the final race for the Fahey team on Friday evening, before Wootton’Sun and then Ramazan (Oisin Orr) rounded off a fine three days at Haydock by winning on Saturday.

And for good measure, Craven, ridden by the veteran Dane O’Neill, scored another success for the team by winning the penultimate race, a seven-furlong handicap, at Leicester later in the afternoon.

Overall it was a good Saturday for local yards, with John Quinn picking up a decent sprint prize at Haydock with Jm Jungle, ridden by Jason Hart, Nigel Tinkler winning with Bella Kopella (Faye McManoman) at Beverley and Tim Easterby, David O’Meara and Mick and David Easterby all on the scoresheet at Carlisle’s evening meeting.

For the Easterby pair of Mick and David, it was the climax of a fine week as they has previously landed a double with Unplugged and So Grateful at Pontefract, struck with Refuge at Haydock on Thursday, who gave apprentice Lewis Chalkley his first winner on his fifth ride, before rounding off the week with Contrast’s success at Carlisle.

Their two winners at Pontefract were a notable triumph for the pair. As most racing fans know, Pontefract is something of a unique track with a run-in of two furlongs from the final bend so normally bagging the inside is a big advantage.

But not on Monday. Having arrived early with amateur rider Serena Brotherton, who rode Unplugged to victory in the opener, David did some homework by walking the course and realised that the fastest ground by some way was on the wide outside and not on the inside.

This often comes about because racecourses water the inside more heavily, often leaving the outside more or less untouched, so after some rain the going on the outside can be a fair bit quicker.

So David instructed Serena to head for the stand side rails on Unplugged as soon as they turned for home.

She carried out his instructions to the letter and the pair galloped away from the rest of the field to score by a cosy two lengths.

In the following race, a six-furlong handicap, the Easterby runner So Grateful was drawn on the outside in stall ten, and the instructions to jockey Shane Gray were to make a beeline to the outside rail straight after exiting the stalls. Although this wide route was many, many yards further than the inside, that extra distance was more than compensated for by having faster ground to race on. Once again the ploy worked.

In an extraordinary race to watch, So Grateful ploughed a lone furrow, sticking limpet-like to the outside rail, whereas the other ten runners initially all raced yards away on the other side of the course.

Despite losing an inordinate amount of ground, the going was so much faster on the less-watered outside that So Grateful proved far superior, eventually winning by half a length from Dream Deal, whose rider Jack Garritty switched to the outside in the straight but could never quite peg back the winner. These two finished well clear of the rest, all of whom had stayed on the other side of the course.

Afterwards a bullish David Easterby told Racing TV: “ Good ride wasn’t it? It’s alright having the idea but you’ve got to follow it through and Shane didn’t go too fast. When you go out on a limb it’s easy to get the fractions wrong and he didn’t do that. I think the only reason So Grateful won is because of the tactics, so the handicapper should drop us rather than put us up for winning!”

Needless to say, in the remaining races all the runners followed the ‘Easterby’ route so the pair’s two remaining runners on the card lost their advantage and failed to win.

The highlight of this week’s racing as far as local runners are concerned is Saturday’s Pertemps Network July Cup at Newmarket on Saturday in which Norton’s new star, the three-year-old Shaquille, trained by Julie Camacho and husband Steve Brown, will be attempting to win his second Group One event having gained that memorable win in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.