Anaisa aces the rest in Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy at Ripon

Tim Easterby landed his second Listed race in a matter of days when Anaisa shocked her rivals in the British Stallion Studs EBF Ripon Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy Stakes.

The lowest-rated runner in the seven-strong field, the teak-tough Ardad filly had only run in a valuable sales race at Newmarket on Saturday.

Sent off a 12-1 chance, David Allan could be spotted travelling noticeably well two furlongs out and it was a matter of if the split would come in time.

When it did, Anaisa was good enough to take advantage, beating another of the outsiders, Awraad by half a length.

The betting suggested it would be a shootout between George Boughey’s Amorim, who clearly did not act on the track, and Simon and Ed Crisford’s Al Shaham, a dual course and distance winner who surprisingly was beaten a long way out.

Easterby had struck at York at the weekend, in the Julia Graves Roses Stakes with Revival Power, but was winning this contest for the first time since 2004 with Space Shuttle.

Easterby said: “She’s so tough. She ran in the sales race the other day but she was drawn one so she had no chance.

“She ended up running a blinder to finish sixth. I was a little worried about running her again, but we’d already declared her and I bred her so I was keen to try to get some black type as her half-brother is in the sales at Newmarket – he’s really nice, he’s by Mattmu.

“She ended up winning it quite nicely. Dave said they went really hard so he just sat in and filled her with confidence.

“I still have the mare, but I was too tight to put her in the Redcar Two-Year-Old Trophy!”