Success for North Yorkshire trainers at The Press Family Raceday

El Viento and Antigua Sunrise, both trained by Malton’s Richard Fahey, Hitchens, for Thirsk’s David Barron, and Malton saddler Brian Ellison’s Simonside all cheered local hearts at the annual Knavesmire Sunday fixture.

Hitchens, the 4-1 favourite, swooped late to win the feature £18,000 The Press Family Raceday Stakes and a tilt at the Ayr Gold Cup now looks to be on the cards.

The five-year-old was delivered with aplomb by jockey Graham Gibbons and gamely held off the equally fast-finishing Secret Witness to win by a neck with Misplaced Fortune back in third.

Bookies totesport cut Hitchens’ odds on winning at Ayr from 20-1 to 14-1, but the trainer believes the five pound weight penalty he will pick up from this York win might prove too much.

Barron said: “He wants fast ground and there aren’t too many options for him because the ground is going to go.

“He will get a penalty for this (for the Ayr Gold Cup) and he’ll definitely get in but it will probably get him beaten.”

Gibbons added: “I got a nice tow and he travelled very nicely, but he was only just doing enough.”

No York race meeting is complete without a victory for Fahey and jockey Paul Hanagan and the Malton-based pair obliged with El Viento (8-1) in the European Breeders’ Fund Maiden Stakes.

Wearing blinkers for the first time, the two-year-old knuckled down in the five furlong contest and, after some early anxieties, swept away from Bunce to a three and a half-length success.

Fahey said: “The blinkers did the job. We gelded him as well. He ran first time out well and the next two he completely flipped his lid.

“So we have gelded him, shoved the blinkers on, and they seem to have done the trick.

“I thought he was going to shirk it early on but he can gallop. He’s not a bad horse. It was grand.”

It was Fahey’s 49th two-year-old winner of the season and another on the board for champion jockey title chasing Hanagan.

On his battle for the crown with Richard Hughes and Ryan Moore, Hanagan said: “It’s not easy. They are two exceptional jockeys and the travelling can sometimes get you down.

“You have to keep going. I am in a good position and I hope for the best.”

Fahey picked up a double when Antigua Sunrise (9-1) raced home in the final Future Cleaning Services Apprentice Stakes with Lee Topliss in the saddle.

Simonside could be on his way to the Cesarewitch at Newmarket after giving Malton trainer Brian Ellison a York winner in the Watt Fences Stakes.

The 16-1 chance had the better of The Last Alzao by a length in the two mile contest and, after winning his last outing, Ellison said the victory had been expected.

“He has been in good form,” he said. “He’s in the Cesarewitch, but we might have to go again and win somewhere (first).

“He went to Ayr from here last year and he might do that again. He was unlucky in this race last year. If he had a free run he won have won last year. He finished third.

“David (Allan, jockey) seems to get on well with him.”

Elsewhere, Orientalist (7-2) scooped the opening Judith Marshall Memorial Stakes.

Taking the lead at around the furlong marker, Eve Johnson Houghton’s juvenile, ridden by Seb Sanders, prevailed in a toe-to-toe battle with El Torbellino and Buzz Law, saddled by the in-form David O’Meara at Nawton.

Sanders then notched a double in the Constant Security Claiming Stakes thanks to Jo’burg (3-1), and Rough Rock (20-1) pipped Fish For Compliments in a thrilling Countrywide Freight Stakes.