David Egan ends frustrating royal week with a treble

Royal Ascot disappointment was replaced by Redcar delight for treble-winning jockey David Egan, thanks largely to promising two-year-old Brave Empire.

The jockey was out of luck in 19 rides at the royal meeting, where he finished a close second on New Endeavour in the Britannia Stakes and Exoplanet in the Hampton Court on Thursday, having suffered when Eldar Eldarov could manage only seventh in the Gold Cup earlier on that card.

But he had a smile on his face after Brave Empire, trained by Roger Varian for Clipper Logistics, followed up his success at Windsor three weeks ago when taking the two-year-old 6f novice by three and a half lengths.

Egan said of the 450,000gns yearling: "He improved a lot from his debut and was tough on his second start, he really battled hard, but he showed a lot of quality today.

"To win with 9st 11lb on his back shows a lot of class. Not a lot of horses can carry a penalty and win with a performance like that. He quickened initially to get away from the pack and I felt he quickened again from the furlong pole."

Looking back on Royal Ascot, Egan added: "I hit the crossbar a couple of times, one after the other. On another day, in another situation, Exoplanet and New Endeavour could both have got their head in front. They both put up great performances.

"Eldar Eldarov travelled fine and came into it four furlongs out before we turned in. I went to give him a wide run on the outside, like he did last year, but two and a half miles is a long way. We might possibly see him back down in trip next time."

Egan also took the 5f handicap on the Varian-trained Russet Gold and the 1m6f handicap on Mirrie Dancers for Roger Fell and Sean Murray.

Cruyff scores

Missing Royal Ascot meant that Cruyff Turn was free to repeat his success of 2021 in the feature 7f handicap.

"He was eliminated from the Buckingham Palace Handicap at Royal Ascot, so we came here as he likes the track and good ground," said trainer Tim Easterby's son William.

"I hope this will give him a bit of confidence and we could aim him at the mile handicap at the Ebor meeting he won two years ago."

Long delay

Ladies day lasted longer than scheduled as Jazz Samba caused a 33-minute delay to an eventful mile handicap.

She was walked to post, then got loose and needed veterinary attention once caught as she became excitable and reluctant to move.

Masterpainter and Vondelpark were also withdrawn at the start so there were significant Rule 4 deductions to some bets on winner Tacitus. Third past the post Billy McGarry was also judged by the stewards to have interfered with fourth home Revoquable and the placings were reversed.

The final race was run 5.45, rather than 5.13 as planned. But extra time in the sun did not upset a big crowd, estimated at nearly 7,000.

Jonjo Sanderson: "I have no definitive answer as to what created it"

No easy way to fix bias

Clerk of the course John Sanderson stressed there is "no quick fix" to counter the significant advantage enjoyed by runners on the inside rail at Redcar.

Jockey Jason Hart spoke of the course's "massive track bias" after winning at Royal Ascot on Big Evs, who had been beaten from a stands' side draw at the track on his debut.

Sanderson acknowledged there is an advantage and said: "I have no definitive answer as to what created it but we replaced the watering system about ten years ago. It's a rail-to-rail system and it's possibly the arc of the water from both sides overlaps in the centre.

"Countering that, the prevailing wind is a westerly and that blows the water away from the inside rail."

Sanderson believes the advantage may have been present for a while and added: "The bias has been apparent in the last three years but there is no way of telling whether it was there before because jockeys all used to come down the middle.

"Then one day, after Covid-19, about three years ago David Allan came down the inside rail and won. Ever since that manoeuvre, jockeys have all wanted to go down there and it's become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Asked about how to counter the bias, Sanderson said: "There is no quick fix. We have been doing what we can, such as watering the inside in isolation and verti-draining and spiking it more there but it's been so dry that it has not had a huge effect.

"Jockeys have suggested having a cut away into the straight or moving the rail off the ground used by the service vehicles but it is too narrow."

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