Welcome return for Cahill
After 16 years riding abroad, Billy Cahill enjoyed his first success since recently returning to these shores when he booted European Dream home in the opening race at Newcastle.
Cahill, 35, brought the 7-1 chance with a steady run down the outside to hit the front well inside the final furlong of the first division of the npower Median Auction Maiden Stakes and land the spoils by a length from Carr Hall.
Winning trainer Richard Guest said: “Billy was a very good lad here and then spent a long time in Germany, where he rode a lot of winners, and then Dubai.
“He rides out for Howard Johnson but before he starts work there he comes to me and rides out for me. It’s nice to have someone with that experience and input working every morning.
“It’s nice to give him a ride and that’s his first winner back – but the lad can ride.”
The winner is owned by a syndicate, which includes Bolton Wanderers’ manager Sam Allardyce, player Gary Speed and Derby County boss Phil Brown.
Guest added: “Sam Allardyce has got a share in him as well as a few of the boys at Bolton but Phil Brown, who used to be Sam’s assistant, is the head of the syndicate.”
European Dream was not unfancied with one noted bet of £3,000 each way at 8-1 being placed with a layer on the rails.
On an afternoon when the runners headed for the far side, which is generally acknowledged to be the quicker ground when the track is riding soft, Darren Williams bucked the trend by racing alone against the stand rail on Effective in the six-furlong Connor Sadler UTS Handicap.
And the move paid off as the 6-1 shot strode home three and a half lengths clear of his rivals on the opposite side of the course.
“It was Darren’s idea,” said winning trainer Alan Jarvis. “It was virgin ground, nobody has been up there all day. He said it’s all cut up over there and you would lose six lengths going across there so he said he’d keep straight.
“He’s such a lovely, tough genuine little horse he wouldn’t mind being on his own.”
Phillip Makin rode his first winner since he lost his claim two weeks ago when he showed plenty of dash to get Simply St Lucia home in the Abigail Bentley 30th Anniversary Fillies’ Stakes.
He kicked the John Weymes-trained 11-2 chance into the lead over three furlongs out in the one-mile contest and he kept her up to her work to score by a length from Kudbeme.
The trainer was represented by his father Ernie, who said: “She did it well and the lad said the soft ground helped him but I don’t think it was a very good race.
“Phillip has ridden a couple of winners for us before but it’s hard to get him.”
Division two of the npower Median Auction Maiden Stakes went to the Michael Bell-trained Chris Crosa, who carried the colours of local businessman George Houghton.
After the Mark Of Esteem gelding had beaten Awatuki by a length and a half in the hands of Joe Fanning, Houghton said: “He needed the bit of cut in the ground. He had a bad draw in 15 but he’s done it nicely.”
Fanning and Williams, who rode the second, were banned for one day (August 23) for not riding to their draw.
There was no bid for Donna’s Double after Karen McLintock’s charge had ended a losing streak stretching back more than three years in the Northumbrian Wateraid Selling Stakes.
