Zack Mayo stayed on strongly to land the £24,000 feature race on day one of Great Yarmouth's Eastern Festival yesterday.
Trained at Newmarket by Charlie McBride, the three-year-old gelding saw off 5/4 favourite High End, unbeaten in his previous three starts, to take the Dan Hague Bookmaker Handicap over 11 furlongs, at 8/1.
Champion jockey-elect Silvestre de Sousa gave the former Ripon winner a fine ride to clock up his 182nd victory of the season.
'Although there were only five runners, they were good progressive horses so I was hoping for a place in the first three,' said McBride. 'He won on good to firm at Ripon and Silvestre said he was a hard ride as he was lazy. Today it was soft and we put on cheekpieces and they may have helped. We've been trying to sell him as a possible jumper. Now he's won such a good race his price has gone up.'
Hamdan Al Maktoum's debutant Mutaaqeb, under reigning champion jockey Jim Crowley, was produced late on the stands-side to take the opening novices' six-furlong event. Trained by Owen Burrows, the Invincible Spirit colt, the 3/1 favourite, got up close home to beat well-backed Rule Of Honour and early leader, 100/1 outsider Equilibrium.
The outsider of the six runners in the Vince Sullivan Memorial Nursery, Rayna's World, proved an easy winner under Jimmy Quinn and rewarded trainer Phil Kirby's 500-mile round trip from north Yorkshire. The 9/1 chance easily won the mile contest, beating Midnight Wilde by six lengths.
There was a shock in the LA Continental Café Handicap when apprentice Darragh Keenan recorded his sixth career win on Robert Eddery's bottom weight Seventii (18/1).
The shortest priced favourite of the day, One Master, collected the Parkdean Resorts Maiden under Ryan Moore for trainer William Haggas at a prohibitive 4/11. The 11/2 shot Ocean Temptress went off like a shot in the Moulton Nursery Handicap but seven-pound claimer Jack Osborn kept the John Ryan trained filly going and held on in a photo-finish.
Only four went in the finale over the minimum five furlongs, with Crowley book-ending the day by making every yard on trainer Mark Johnston's Poet's Society, returned at 7/2.
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