RIPON

FOLLOWING his good fourth in the Stewards’ Cup, Richard Fahey’s July Cup sixth Growl was made 5/1 favourite for the William Hill Great St Wilfrid at Ripon.

However, he never threatened as another horse with form at the highest level, Tim Easterby’s Mattmu, made all on the far side to score at 25/1.

No form pundit would have found him on recent efforts after he returned from a spell at stud.

Mattmu has been third in a Nunthorpe and successful at group level at the Curragh and Maisons-Laffitte, but had not beaten a rival in his last two outings.

Indeed, his most recent run saw him finish last of four at Doncaster, a country mile adrift. This was some training performance but the Easterbys have been winning races like this for many years and no one should be surprised.

On Saturday the far side seemed favoured in the big one, with Mattmu and David Allan holding last year’s fourth Pipers Note by three-parts with Shanghai Glory and Snap Shots next.

However, in the earlier consolation race, the William Hill Silver Trophy, the first four came up the stands’ side, Teruntum Star, 12/1, just holding Red Pike to underline Kevin Ryan’s return to form.

There was a sad postscript to the Silver Trophy when the popular sprinter Jack Dexter had to be put down after fracturing a cannonbone.

The eight-year-old won 10 of his 55 races and earned £430,052 in prize money for the Jim Goldie stable.

His biggest success came in the Group 3 Chipchase Stakes at Newcastle in 2013 and his last was in a handicap at Ascot only last month.