York Ebor glory for Murtagh Mutual Regard gave former top-class jockey Johnny Murtagh a headline winner as a trainer with victory in the Betfred Ebor at York. Given a cool ride by 5lb claimer Louis Steward, the 20-1 chance was handy just off the pace cut out by Dare To Achieve, with Retirement Plan and Mighty Yar others towards the fore early on. Steward was chosen for the ride as Murtagh's stable apprentice Ross Coakley was suspended having picked up a 3-days whip ban when winning on Steuben for the yard at Southwell on 7th August. The eventual winner could be spotted moving strongly down the straight in his cheekpieces, and when Steward eased to the front inside the two-furlong marker he had enough in the tank to get the better of a battle with Van Percy by a length and a quarter. Elidor was third and the heavily backed 9-2 favourite Pallasator ran a big race to be fourth from his wide draw in stall 22, which meant he had to be dropped in almost last on leaving the gates. To increase the pain for Pallasator's handler Sir Mark Prescott, the Newmarket baronet used to train Mutual Regard before he was sold to Andrew Tinkler.
