ROYAL RASCAL put the seal on a perfect day for the Easterby family at York Racecourse.

The juvenile scooped the Reg Griffin Appreciation EBF Maiden Stakes in some style for Tim Easterby, giving the Great Habton trainer a Knavesmire double after Crackentorp had earlier won the Queen Mother’s Cup.

Royal Rascal (4-1) was hugely impressive in the six-furlong contest – quickening under jockey David Allan in the final furlong and stretching out to a five-furlong triumph over Finaz.

While the heavy ground might have had something to do with the relative poor performances of some of her rivals, it was still a display of which to sit up and take notice.

Easterby said: “Cocktail Charlie, her brother, can’t go a yard on soft ground and I told David to hold her in case she didn’t like it.

“There were one or two nice horses in the race but they just didn’t go on the ground. It’s fantastic.”

David O’Meara has had to be patient with Edmaaj, but the Nawton trainer was rewarded with a York winner.

The four-year-old was placed in four of his six starts, and suffered from a fibrillating heart following his run at Ripon last month, but bounced back to take the Richard Howard-Vsye Memorial Stakes.

He did it in some style too, reeling in Rustic Dream who looked the most likely victor going into the closing stages of the mile-and-one-furlong contest.

But with Danny Tudhope in the saddle, Edmaaj (10-1) finished like a train to clinch the £12,000 race by two-and-a-half lengths for his Pickering owner Kevin Nicholson.

O’Meara said: “He’s a lovely horse and he saw out the trip really well. He’s had four seconds and he had a fibrillating heart after Ripon. It corrected itself “It was brilliant and it is always great to have a winner at York. He’s a good horse and he hasn’t done a lot wrong.”

And Stillington’s Ruth Carr got her name on the York scoresheet when Klynch (9-1) took the closing Charles Henry Memorial Handicap.

Sholaan (10-1) swept to the easiest of victories in the feature £80,000 Bond Tyres Trophy.

Nothing could keep pace with the three-year-old, trained by William Haggas, when jockey Liam Jones decided it was time to strike for home with two furlongs remaining.