Mukhayyam heads Tim Easterby double at Ripon

Mukhayyam landed the feature Ripon Bell-Ringer Handicap to provide Tim Easterby with a 74-1 double at the North Yorkshire course.

A winner at York last week, the game front-runner continued his good recent form and followed up the earlier impressive victory of Bow Belles (14-1) for Easterby and David Allan in the Mick Gibbons Memorial Novice Stakes.

Ripon has often suited those who make the running on the round track and that was certainly the case on the opening day of the Go Racing In Yorkshire Summer Festival.

After three lifeless runs earlier in the season, which saw him drop in the weights, Mukhayyam (4-1) has now been second twice and won two of his last five runs.

Fleeting Visit was a persistent challenger inside the final furlong, but Allan's mount eventually pulled three and a half lengths clear of the 3-1 favourite.

"The race we had our eye on was the Queen Mother's Cup at York which he was second in," said Easterby. "But all he does his stay and we didn't tell Emily (Easterby) to kick on soon enough.

"He takes a lot of getting fit each season, but he's a lovely horse, very game.

"There might be a race at Goodwood for him and then he'll go to the Ebor meeting. He doesn't have to have it soft."

Bow Belles took a big step forward from her debut at the track in April to run out a ready winner as Saeed bin Suroor's Moseeb disappointed.

Easterby said: "She ran very well first time up here and we wanted to take her to York, but the ground was too quick.

"She came home really strongly today and was quite impressive. She's quick, I wish I'd put her in the sales races!

"I have a good record with two-year-olds here, but you have to have the right type. She'd run well here first time, so we knew she'd be OK."

Tony Hamilton has forged a fruitful partnership with Roger Fell and the pair teamed up to win the Sky Bet Go-Racing-In-Yorkshire Summer Festival Handicap through Mulligatawny (3-1).

Another to make all the running, Hamilton was sat motionless as his weighing-room colleagues were striving for more and he came home a length and a quarter clear.

"This is a track for front-runners, but I was a bit worried as I had to give him a dig to get to the front and I wasn't sure how much that had taken out of him," said Hamilton.

"I was always comfortable and two out I knew it would take a good one to get past me, even though he had a lot of weight."

Jumping into an early lead did not guarantee victory, however, as Richard Fahey's Areen Heart was reeled in close home by the Alan Brown-trained Shouranour in the VW Van Centre Handicap.

Send off at 10-1, Josh Doyle persevered on the seven-year-old to win by half a length.

Indy finally returned to winning ways in the Ruth Gibbons Family Handicap.

Since winning on his debut for David Barron he had lost 16 on the spin, but now with John Quinn he bolted up under Jason Hart at 5-1.