Lady Youmzain maintains unbeaten record with Pontefract win

Lady Youmzain looks a filly ready to test her powers at a higher level after maintaining her unbeaten record at Pontefract.

A five-length winner on her Beverley debut in September, Kevin Ryan’s three-year-old was a 4-5 favourite to give weight and a beating to three rivals under a 7lb penalty in the Constant Security Services Fillies’ Novice Stakes.

Sent straight to the lead by Kevin Stott, Lady Youmzain picked up well without being fully extended and was value for more than the official winning margin of a length over Town Queen, who like the winner is owned by Jaber Abdullah.

Adam Ryan, assistant to his father, told Racing TV: “She’s got a great attitude, won last year and was always going to improve from two to three.

“She carried a penalty there, which can be tough, but I loved the way she strode out and put the race to bed. She really knuckled down to the task.

“We’ll see how she comes out of the race and discuss with Mr Abdullah and his representatives and see where we go from there.”

John Quinn expects Cape Ashizuri to go on to bigger and better things after making a successful start to his campaign in the Napoleons Casino Bradford Handicap.

The son of St Mark’s Basilica is a half-brother to several black type performers, most notably The Wow Signal, who won the Group One Prix Morny for the Quinn team eight years ago.

A 100-30 shot having won one of his three starts as a juvenile, Cape Ashizuri knuckled down to claim this prize by a neck from Alaminos and connections are hoping there is further improvement in the locker.

Quinn, who trains the gelding in partnership with his son Sean, said: “He showed a good attitude as he got pushed wide through no fault of his own, but he dug deep and put his head down and galloped all the way to the line.

“He’s a nice animal, still a little bit unfurnished – he’s a horse I think will win a good race this year, or two.”

The most valuable race on the card was the £28,000 RIU Hotels And Resorts Handicap, which went the way of Richard and Peter Fahey’s Have Secret.

The six-year-old disappointed on his hurdling debut at Catterick on New Year’s Day, but following a readying run back on the Flat at Doncaster last month, he looked better than ever in claiming this prize by two and a quarter lengths under Billy Garritty at odds of 4-1.

“It’s always great to get winners early on (in the season) and we’ve been lucky in this race, so it’s nice to win it again,” said Richard Fahey.

“This performance today was the best performance of his life at six years of age.

“Brian Hughes came in and schooled him six or seven times and he was absolutely brilliant, but we took him to Catterick and looked like he’d never even seen a hurdle – he probably thought life on the Flat is not too bad!”