Diversity of achievements (From York Press)

Diversity of achievements

9:40am Friday 23rd December 2011 in Turf Talk By Steve Carroll, Sports reporter

LIKE mince pies and Bond films on the TV, you can’t end a year without having a Christmas chart run-down. So, in true festive spirit, it’s time for the Turf Talk countdown of the top ten North Yorkshire horseracing moments of 2011.

10. Divers wins at the Cheltenham Festival

Ferdy Murphy described Divers as his best bet of the Festival in preview events before the trip to Prestbury Park in March. The seven-year-old did not let him down.

Giving West Witton-based Murphy his tenth Festival winner, the 10-1 shot beat Quantitativeeasing by two-and-three-quarter lengths in the Centenary Novices’ Chase under a masterly ride by jockey Graham Lee.

9. Hayley becomes the Queen of York Racecourse

Hayley Turner’s Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes victory on Margot Did put her in exalted company. She became only the second woman to win a Group 1 race on Knavesmire, matching Alex Greaves who dead-heated with Kevin Darley in 1997 in the same race.

For Turner, who had broken her Group 1 duck only a month previously when winning the July Cup at Newmarket on Dream Ahead, the York win confirmed her position as the most successful British female jockey ever.

8. Inexile’s sprinting success

The sprinter, trained by David Nicholls at Sessay, displayed a “have saddle, will travel” attitude in 2011 – winning Listed sprint races at Naas, Cork and Tipperary in Ireland before taking to the continent and winning a Group 3 sprint at Longchamp and also finishing runner-up in a Group 2 sprint in Chantilly.

7. Jukebox Jury’s foreign raids

Middleham’s Mark Johnston once had a stellar stable of older horses, including the brilliant Double Trigger and Bandari. Those type of animals are thin on the ground these days at Kingsley House but, in Jukebox Jury, it’s clear quality is far more important than quantity.

A winner of two Group 1 races in 2009, the five-year-old showed he was as good as ever during the Flat season.

He won the Group 2 Kergorlay Stakes at Deauville before dead-heating with Duncan in the Irish St Leger in September.

A tilt at the Melbourne Cup came to nothing in November when he suffered a leg fracture but, with Johnston hopeful of a full recovery, the brilliant stayer will be aimed at a repeat trip to Australia in 2012 and a tilt at the Ascot Gold Cup in June.

6. Brian Ellison breaks his Grade race hoodoo

A record year of winners at Spring Cottage got off to the best possible start when Marsh Warbler won the Finale Hurdle at Chepstow in January. The win ended a near 22-year wait for the Norton handler to taste Grade 1 glory, having come agonisingly close in the past with the likes of Latalomne. With that in the bag, Ellison’s yard brimmed with confidence throughout the year – scoring a best-ever tally of 53 Flat winners and, to date, 20 jumps victors – a mere one short of last year’s record.

5. Hoof It’s rise up the ranks

Those in the know always suspected Hoof It, trained by Mick Easterby at Sheriff Hutton, was a classy horse and he proved it in 2011, only narrowly missing out on Group 1 glory by the end of the Flat campaign.

The four-year-old established a fantastic partnership with Kieren Fallon and won twice at York before stunning the racing world with a brilliant two-and-a-half length victory in the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood while carrying a back-breaking ten stone.

Sixth in the Nunthorpe at York in August, after languishing a little at the start, Hoof It was just a quarter of a length away from winning the Sprint Cup at Haydock a couple of weeks later. That elusive Group 1 should arrive in 2012.

4. Silvestre de Sousa’s wonderful season

Many expected Paul Hanagan to be pushed to the limit in his bid to keep his champion jockey title, not many expected his principal rival to be Silvestre de Sousa.

Thanks to a link-up with Mark Johnston at Middleham, the Brazilian-born rider finally has the armoury to match his sterling talents in the saddle and not until the last day did he relinquish his charge on the championship trophy.

A best ever total of 167 winners throughout the year, and a bag full of top Pattern races, was the result of a brilliant year which also saw him claim the title of top Yorkshire rider.

3. Tangerine Trees’ Group 1 glory

The Yorkshire Racehorse of the Year won three of his five races in 2011 and what victories they were.

The Group 3 Palace House Stakes in May was followed by the Listed Beverley Bullet in August but both those triumphs were topped when the six-year-old went to France in October.

He beat a top class field to land the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp and York’s Nunthorpe Stakes will be the top target in 2012.

2. Paul Hanagan is champion jockey...again

Winning it the first time in 2010 was a once-in-a-century occurrence, but Paul Hanagan’s achievement in doubling up 12 months later was arguably even better.

It proved, not that anyone needed telling, that the Malton-based rider was no fluke – his determination to win races seeing off the persistent challenge of both Kieren Fallon and Silvestre de Sousa.

1. Moyenne Corniche wins the Ebor Handicap

The Juddmonte International may be the flagship race, but they don’t call York’s August showpiece the Ebor Festival for nothing. Far Ahead, trained by Les Eyre, had been the last Yorkshire-based horse to win Europe’s richest handicap in 1997 but, on the day the race moved to a Saturday for the first time in its near 170-year history, it was reclaimed by the county once more.

Moyenne Corniche was the outsider of Norton trainer Brian Ellison’s two runners, Saptapadi being far more fancied by the punters, bookies and even the trainer himself. Ellison, however, did say he thought Moyenne Corniche was good enough to challenge so he wasn’t too surprised when the 25-1 shot came with a late run to take the spoils.

The horse then went on to Australia to run in the Melbourne Cup and will continue to compete down under next year.