HOT on the heels of his 35 winners during August, Ralph Beckett swiftly got off the mark in September with Diamond Vega’s listed success at Baden-Baden last Saturday.

Closer to home later the same afternoon, Classical Song confirmed the promise she had displayed on her debut at Goodwood by scoring at Sandown. The well bred daughter of Lope De Vega was flagged up in this column after her encouraging performance in a seven-furlong fillies’ maiden at the Qatar Festival on the Sussex Downs when a running on third at the start of last month.

A €420,000 breeze-up buy in the spring, the half-sister to Group 1 winner Dylan Mouth justified strong market support before running out a ready winner at the Esher venue. More streetwise on this occasion, Ryan Moore’s partner was never far away and, having taken over passing the two-furlong marker, she powered up the Sandown hill to win going away by three lengths. The further she went, the better she looked.

A dab hand with fillies, Beckett won’t be in a rush to throw the Doreen Tabor-owned filly in at the deep end, especially being a May 15th foal, and, rather than take up her entries in either the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes or Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket later in the autumn, she is more likely to dip her toe into listed company next month.

Make a note of Monday, October 23rd, and the Listed Silver Tankard Stakes at Pontefract – the Hampshire trainer won the one-mile event in 2015 and 2018 and was also responsible for the runner-up in 2021 and 2022, including Westover a couple of years ago. Then, next season, the stable might have an Oaks contender on their hands.

HAVING been a regular visitor to Catterick in my youth, I will always have a soft spot for the North Yorkshire track. However, even its most ardent supporter found it difficult to get enthusiastic about their seven race card at the end of last month.

Arguably the highlight of the day was chatting to Jonathan Ramsden, son of the legendary Jack, who watched his own Monsieur Melee, via our Racing TV monitor, finish third in the seven-furlong maiden at Musselburgh.

A chip off the old block, as soon as the Jedd O’Keeffe-trained colt crossed the line, Ramsden nominated the one-mile nursery at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting a week tomorrow (4.45) as his next target. It evoked memories of Top Cees – great days.

CHARLES Byrnes livened things up at Downpatrick’s Bank Holiday Monday fixture towards the end of last month with the Cheltenham Festival-winning handler sending out a treble, while the Ken Budds-trained Anyway, who Byrnes had purchased as a store a couple of years earlier, stepped up markedly on his five previous runs to land a wholesale gamble in the two-mile handicap hurdle.

Those with good memories and a few years in the bank may recall the ‘Gay Future’ affair, which took place on the Monday, August 26th, 1974 at my local track Cartmel – almost 49 years to the day.

Brilliantly planned by Scottish permit holder and stockbroker Tony Collins, the coup involved two chestnut horses, two jockeys and two trainers in the Ulverston Novice Hurdle on one of the busiest days in the calendar. Following the withdrawal of the Collins-trained runners at Plumpton and Southwell on the same afternoon, Arctic Chevalier was swapped for the ‘real’ Gay Future at a layby approximately six miles from my home.

On the day, Collins and his friends flew to London to place a series of £10 and £15 singles on Gay Future and combined him in doubles and trebles with the other two horses who never left Collins’ stable. A 7lbs conditional jockey was replaced by a top Irish amateur and the four-year-old won by 15 lengths at odds of 10/1.

In a remote part of the Lake District, Cartmel racecourse only had one telephone line, which was deliberately kept engaged to prevent bookmakers from contacting the betting ring and lowering Gay Future’s odds.

While Irish bookmakers paid out, their British counterparts refused and the plot was exposed when a reporter from Sporting Life telephoned Collins’ Troon stable to be told by a member of his stable staff that the other two horses hadn’t left the premises.

Tony Collins, along with fellow ringleader and millionaire Irish builder Tony Murphy, were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the bookmakers and warned off for 10 years.

THE curtain came down on Cartmel’s season on bank holiday Monday with Jimmy Moffatt crowned champion trainer for the sixth time at his local track with seven winners, including a treble at their penultimate meeting.

There was plenty of interest from Ireland during their eight fixtures between May and August with John McConnell’s 10 runners producing four winners. Co Derry handler Noel Kelly had one winner from his 11 runners, while rising star Cian Collins sent over Fiveonefive to win the £21,124 Oakmere Homes Handicap Hurdle in early July under the irrepressible Denis O’Regan, who was a regular at the Cumbrian track during his days when based in the UK.

With the competition so intense in their home country, expect the trend to continue when Cartmel’s new season gets underway next spring.

WILLIAM Haggas mopped up the majority of the feature juvenile events at York’s Ebor Festival with Relief Rally confirming she is one of the best juvenile fillies on either side of the Irish Sea in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes, while Lake Forest caused something of a surprise the following day in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes – the stable’s fourth win in the six-furlong event.

A few days later, the Newmarket trainer saw the once-raced Remaadd plough through the mud to win a mile maiden at Goodwood by a winning distance in excess of four lengths. A colt by Gleneagles and from a family his handler knows well, being a half-brother to Jorvik Handicap winner Gaassee, he had shaped well on his debut over seven furlongs at Haydock last month finishing runner-up behind the unbeaten Shadwell-owned filly Alshinfarah.

Appreciating the extra furlong and with experience under his belt, Tom Marquand’s mount outpointed his seven opponents with consummate ease streaking away inside the final furlong. Set to reappear in the Listed Ascendant Stakes at Haydock Park this afternoon (4.45) – a one-mile contest which has been won in recent years by subsequent Group 1 winners Pyledriver (2019) and Triple Time (2021) – it is hoped the Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum-owned juvenile can pass that test with flying colours before having a tilt at the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket in three weeks time.