Baryshnikov poised for another tilt at the Zetland Gold Cup after Redcar victory

BARYSHNIKOV has been placed in the last two Zetland Gold Cups, and Thirsk trainer Nicola Barron says the Redcar feature race is on the cards again after the eight-year-old’s battling victory at the track today.

The gelding landed the Racing TV Free Trial Handicap Stakes, overhauling favourite Hopeful close home to give Callum Rodriguez a double after his earlier win on Paborus.

"It's nice for him to have an easier race to go for here because he's been a regular in the Zetland Gold Cup. We thought he came here with a strong chance," said Thirsk trainer Nicola Barron.

Baryshnikov was third to Oviedo in last year's Zetland Gold Cup and filled the same berth behind Forest Falcon the year before.

"He'll go to Chester next week because he seems to run quite well round there, and then the Zetland Gold Cup will probably be the target as long as it's not too firm," added Barron, who shares the training licence with her father, David.

Group 1 winning Middleham trainer, Ed Bethell, described Paborus as “a horse with an exciting future” after the three-year-old skated away to impressively win the Join Racing TV Restricted Novice Stakes.

“We’re delighted because we’ve always held him in high regard,” said Bethell. “He’s taken a bit of time to come to hand this spring but he’s a nice horse who’s going to give his owners (the Yorbus Syndicate) a lot of fun this summer.”

Rodriguez added: “He’s a lovely big horse and we really liked him last year. He’s been training really nicely and there’s plenty of improvement to come.”

On The Bubble – named after a poker phrase and owned by the Multifruit Syndicate of poker pals – proved to be the ace in the pack in Redcar's first race of 2024, the Racing TV Club Day Here Today Handicap.

The Land Force filly, trained at Middleham by Ben Haslam and ridden by Cieren Fallon, ran out an easy winner.

Haslam said: “We’re delighted. I think the draw was a massive advantage with the stalls on the far side because the far rail is a bit of a golden highway.

“She’s always shown us plenty and fitting a hood has helped today. She’ll go to Ripon with a penalty on Friday.”

Syndicate member Ken McBride, who travelled up from Cornwall, added: “We’re over the moon. We were just here for a nice day out, but we had a better hand than we thought!”

After 15 defeats in 15 runs, Mrs Trump, trained by Paul Midgley, was in the last chance saloon but stayed on strongly at rewarding odds of 20-1 to land the Racing TV Profits Returned To Racing Handicap.

Eleventh of 11 at Newcastle last time out, and 10th of 12 at Wolverhampton the time before that, she flew home under Cam Hardie to collar Tim Easterby's joint-favourite, Showalong, close home.

"That was her last chance,' said owner Ryan Chapman, who runs a haulage business at Leeds. "We'd decided she was going to have to find a new home, but we'll have to unpack her bags now!"

Jockey Jack Mitchell predicted better things to come from Not Real as Roger Varian’s Newmarket raider easily justified 1-5 favouritism in the Start Racing TV Free Trial Now Fillies' Novice Stakes.

“She'll get better as the season goes on,” said Mitchell. "It was pretty straight-forward although she got a bump at the start that lit her up. After that she was grand despite still being a bit green and novicey on ground that's a bit sticky. There's definitely more to come."

The daughter of Kodiac had been a promising second on her debut at Kempton a fortnight ago.

The 6-1 outsider of three landed the final race of the day, The Watch Race Replays At racingtv.com Handicap, as Kaaress, trained by Ollie Pears at Malton, and ridden by Harry Russell, got up close home for the Ownaracehorse syndicate.

Syndicate manager Richard Laws said: "How they sent her off at that price, I don't know, because the win wasn't unexpected. She needed her run last time at Wolverhampton and has been going nicely at home.

"We can look forward to a cracking season and she could be up to a mile and a half by the end of the year."