Easterby fails to supplement his pension Talkative trainer Mick Easterby was left 'dumbfounded' by the surprise success of Pension Fund at Chester today. The North Yorkshireman, rarely without a quip in the winner`s enclosure, was practically speechless after his unfancied seven-year-old had landed the Stg#15,000-added Walter Smith & Way Stakes. And to make matters worse, he admitted backing the unlucky-in-running runner-up, The Whistling Teal. Pension Fund, third in the race 12 months previously, had been beaten around 20 lengths in each of two previous runs on turf this year. But the 9-1 shot hit the front turning for home under Jimmy Fortune - deputising for the unwell Terry Lucas - and held on by a length and a quarter from The Whistling Teal, who finished strongly after Kevin Darley was forced to challenge widest of all. 'I am dumbfounded!' Easterby said. 'I didn`t fancy him one bit and I didn`t have a pound on him. 'I backed the second. Kevin Darley lives in my village and hesaid it wouldn`t get beaten! I can`t believe it!' Fellow northern trainer Alan Berry also upset the odds in the Joseph Heler Cheshire Cheese Lily Agnes Conditions Stakes which opened the three-day Chester May meeting. His well-fancied Lady Ansell dropped away in the home straight to finish last of the nine runners. But then the trainer`s apparent second-string Simianna (16-1) arrived on the scene to challenge long-time leader Shuffling Kid and she got up in the last 150 yards to score by three-quarters of a length. Simianna, bought for just 1,000 guineas as a yearling, was taking her earnings past Stg#17,000 with her third win in four starts. 'Alan bought her and these bargains are there if you look hard enough,' said Berry`s father and predecessor as licence-holder, Jack. This race was won 12 months ago by subsequent Queen Mary Stakes winner Romantic Myth but Berry senior added: 'I don`t know about Royal Ascot for this filly as she is quite sharp and more the type for the Molecomb. 'She did well to win here and she has got a good engine.' There was no respite for favourite-backers in the Caber Construction Maiden Stakes as 7-1 chance Alowmdah pipped 10-11 market leader Big Moment for a head verdict. The winner had been well beaten in the mud at Epsom previously and trainer Ben Hanbury said: 'He appreciated the firmer ground here today.'
