York Friday review: Ron O and Ray Craggs steal the show
By David Ord
16:58 · FRI June 14, 2024
David Ord was at York to see a 28/1 outsider and his 80-year-old trainer steal the show on Friday.
You didn’t have to look too far for the story of the day at York on Friday.
The feature race, the Seat Unique Handicap, was won by Ron O for trainer Ray Craggs.
He’s not a household name and this was the biggest success of his training career – and that has spanned some years.
This was a case of David landing one on Goliath’s nose again, the 80-year-old trainer having less than a handful of horses under his care at the Sedgefield stables.
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He could scarcely believe it afterwards.
"He’d won me seven races, that’s eight now, but I thought we might be out of depth a bit here,” Craggs smiled.
“He’s a nice horse. He needs time between his races as he gets himself run up a bit. Give him time and he fills out his back end and gets some power into him. Once he has that power he gets to that line.
“I’m lost for words. I thought we were making the numbers up. We’re only a small yard. We have four horses and they’re all mine. I’ve been training for years. I rode at Newcastle when I was 16 years old but I wasn’t good enough to I had to start to work! We’re just normal people. I stuck him in and thought ‘were in the handicap let’s have a go’.”
Despite Ron O having won his previous start at Redcar, his owner-trainer wasn’t dipping into his pocket to back him beforehand.
“I used to back horses, I don’t now, I gamble in business now. That’s my gamble,” added Craggs who has a host of firms and a full workload."
So where now?
“Jason (Hart) said get him ready for the John Smith’s Cup but he’s not in that. I’m not used to these better races!", the trainer added.
“I’m 80. I was going to pack up at the start of the year but thought we’d keep going. I’ve never had a horse good enough to run here. He’s only my second runner at York. I didn’t know how to get here.”
He does now and fingers crossed Ron O and his team will be back at the Knavesmire at some stage this summer.
Eustace pair primed for Ascot
As he prepared to welcome back a 16/1 winner a York on Friday, Harry Eustace was leaning heavily towards a tilt at Group One glory at Royal Ascot next week.
Docklands, his Britannia hero from 2023, is the horse in question and while the Wolferton had been mooted as a potential target in Berkshire next week, the changing nature of the Queen Anne Stakes, the very first race of the meeting, has tempted him to go for gold.
“He’ll almost certainly go for the Queen Anne,” the affable and upwardly mobile handler said.
“I thought the Wolferton came up hot enough and it looks like Inspiral is off to the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes so as for the Queen Anne it’s probably not the strongest renewal and our straight mile form is excellent. We’ll go a mile-and-a-quarter at some point, probably next time.”
Regarding any other big runners for the yard next week, Eustace offered up one: “Divine Comedy has her chance in the Ascot Stakes. She won very well at Haydock and will be very competitive.”
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And did Havana Gila’s 16/1 success under Hayler Turner come as a surprise?
"It was fantastic," the trainer said. "She’s the first foal out of the mare and she was very, very tough there. It got very tight on the rail, and she's always been very hardy at home.
"She ran well first time and Hayley has given her a great ride. It's fantastic and great prize money."
Pears already thinking of 2025
“We’ll win it again next year.”
That was trainer Ollie Pears’ sign off after the victory of Inconspicuous in the CGE Yorkshire Rous Selling Stakes.
It was a second successive victory in the race for the trainer but one battle he did lose was at the subsequent auction, waving ‘no mas’ at 29,000 guineas, the winner returning home with Gay Kelleway.
There was no bitterness afterwards though, the handler, who ran three in the race, saying: “We could have bid again but he was a 15 grand yearling and has won plenty of prize money. We need to trade horses and he was our main one today.
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“The two fillies are nursery horses who probably want seven furlongs and the winner is going to win more races obviously and I wish Gay all the best. It’s an open market and we could have bid again so no complaints. We know the risks.”
And opportunities to run horses in races like this are become rare.
“The amount of sellers that have gone now is an absolute joke,” Pears bemoaned. “The Redcar seven furlong seller has gone, the five furlong one there in April, gone, Catterick seller gone, the Gaskets seller at Ripon that was always there on the Saturday, gone.
“It makes the job harder. We have to get them handicapped and go down the nursery route now.”
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