By Peter Moore at Ascot Friday 12th July 2024
The opening day of the Summer Mile Racing Weekend saw the 16th renewal of the popular Property Raceday.
An entertaining afternoons racing including some very close finishes on a six race card offering over £135,000 in prize money.
The feature race on the card was the Savills British EBF Fillies Handicap, run over a mile and a half which went to the four-year-old Ya Hafhd under Jack Mitchell for Roger Varian.
The filly was well beaten on her previous run at Goodwood, but thrived under Mitchell who decided to settle the horse in front early on and continued to make all the running to win by a length and a quarter.
Dreamrocker provided trainer Ed Walker with the first leg of a double in the opening race of the afternoon, an apprentice handicap over a mile.
William Carver produced the filly at the furlong pole to surge to the front where she held on to get her head in front by a neck.
Walker’s only other runner on the card Fantasy Believer proved successful in the one mile three furlongs handicap with Saffie Osborne in the saddle.
The experienced seven-year-old defied odds of 18-1 and a gap of 276 days between his last run to win by three quarters of a length from top weight Mustazeed.
Newmarket trainer John Butler celebrated his first success at Ascot by saddling Zain Blue to victory in the class 3 handicap over the old mile.
The three-year-old had been placed in four of his seven starts before claiming his first win at the eighth attempt.
There was drama as the race unfolded after Callum Shepherd had a nasty fall aboard Magnum Opus. The three-year-old clipped the heals of Cerulean Bay entering the home straight.
Shepherd was thrown to the ground and was quickly attended to on track before eventually walking away with a bandaged head.
The jockey, has a full set of rides booked at Ascot on Saturday including Summer Mile favourite Quddwah.
There was a thrilling four way battle in the 6f nursery with less than half a length separating the first four home with victory secured by the William Haggas trained Art Market getting the better by a neck from Berkshire Kameo and Patsy Snugfit who dead heated for second place.