ORNATE DASHES TO SUCCESS

David Griffiths recorded his first victory in the £100,000 Investec ‘Dash’ as Ornate (33/1) captured the world’s fastest five-furlong event under Phil Dennis. The six-year-old Bahamian Bounty gelding came across from the outside stall two to soon take the lead and held on gamely in the closing stages to score by a neck. The Scott Dixon-trained Dark Shot (14/1) was second, with Robert Cowell’s Blue De Vega (25/1) a neck behind in third. Eeh Bah Gum (9/1), trained by Tim Easterby, was a further head back in fourth.

South Yorkshire-based Griffths who also ran Duke Of Firenze, who finished seventh said: “I’m delighted. We probably fancied Duke Of Firenze a bit more as he was drawn on the stands’ side rail (stall 19) which is usually the place you need to be. Ornate was drawn completely the other side (stall 2), but I thought he was seriously well handicapped off a mark of 99. He has so much speed, but I didn’t expect him to be tanking along at that speed as it is the quickest five furlongs here. To travel like that at Epsom was very impressive. I’m chuffed to bits and just over the moon to win this race again. Ornate was wrong last year, but we’ve got him back since and it’s just been about taking little steps with him. We ran him in the Duke Of York last time out and that was a fact finding mission. I think in time he will be a Group horse, but he was was ninth in that race, so we decided to go back handicapping and put him in the Dash.”

“Group races will probably be more for him next year. The ability is definitely there and he is seriously quick. He had good form over six furlongs when trained by Robert Cowell, but I think if we try to campaign him over six that might make him slow. There are more opportunities over six furlongs, but if you campaign him over that trip, you will take away his natural speed. It only takes less than 60 seconds, so it’s OK – you only have to worry for about a minute, which I am happy with!” The winning time was a fast 54.00s, just outside the 53.69s course record.

Phil Dennis had to pinch himself after winning on the ultra speedy Ornate, just seven days after another career highlight on stable-mate Duke Of Firenze in another valuable handicap at York. It was his first ride at Epsom Downs. Dennis, 22, said: “That was a lot of fun. To be fair he’s such a straightforward horse. He is literally ‘jump and go’ – that’s his style. He’s in top gear the whole way but he just keeps going. He goes a relentless gallop the whole way. I thought the draw might ruin our chance, but he took a length out of them out of the stalls, and although he wasn’t quite quick enough to lead Caspian Prince in the early stages the further he goes the more he gallops them into the ground. I never felt like his tank was emptying and that was a good performance. “It was my first ride here and that’s some feeling. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet, but he’s been some horse for me. It’s my first year without a claim, so I needed something like that. Last week on Duke Of Firenze was my highlight at the time, but this has just blown it out of the water.”

Paul Dixon, the former CEO of the Horsemen’s Group and father of trainer Scott Dixon, was representing his son at Epsom Racecourse as Dixon Jnr was in a Chesterfield hospital with wife Rebecca who was in labour expecting the birth of their first child.