Dods back for York finale with his sprinting aces

York’s season comes to a close on Saturday, with the Michael Dods-trained pair of Northern Ticker and Commanche Falls taking each other on again in the £100,000 Coral Sprint Trophy.

The duo fought out the finish to a similar race at the Ebor meeting in August, which saw Northern Ticker promoted to favouritism for the Ayr Gold Cup.

He finished sixth there, while Commanche Falls, who won the Stewards’ Cup twice in his younger days, is 6lb better off on this occasion.

“You don’t really want to be beating a stablemate, having a one-two – it’s harsh for the one that finishes second,” said Dods.

“But when you’re in races like that, horses deserve to take a chance and they’re out there to do their best. They both ran well.

“I thought Ticker ran well at Ayr. He was probably drawn on the wrong side and maybe a bit more pace would have helped him into the race. But he ran a good race, stayed on to the line.

“Paul Mulrennan sort of feels that next year he could develop and come back to five furlongs because he does have a high cruising speed in a race. He’s a big horse, hence with the ground and one thing and another, he hasn’t had a lot of racing this year, so we would expect there to be quite a bit of improvement going into next season.

“They never go together at home. They’re both quite lazy work horses, to be honest. Northern Ticker would need a lead horse to follow otherwise he wouldn’t do a lot.

“Commanche Falls is an old horse – we’d just canter him and he keeps himself fit, he’s not a horse we’d want to be too hard on at home. They race differently because Northern Ticker is a strong traveller whereas Commanche Falls is normally off the bridle.”

One place in front of Northern Ticker at Ayr was Kevin Ryan’s Hammer The Hammer. His trainer takes 5lb off the top-weight with promising apprentice Warren Fentiman.

The opening Listed Coral Rockingham Stakes sees William Haggas’ Division aiming to make it three wins in a row following odds-on successes at Haydock and Yarmouth.

The Kingman colt cost 800,000 guineas at the Tattersalls Book 1 sale two years ago.

“We are pretty certain he doesn’t want soft ground and the ground at York for this time of year should be nice,” said Richard Brown of owners Wathnan Racing.

“We’ll go up there and take our chance, it’s a nice stepping stone into better company. He’s obviously won his novice and then under a penalty so it’s the obvious next step and we’ll see where we’re at with him.”