A Gentleman or the real Deal?

Mick Easterby's remarkable inmate, an active stallion as well as a high-class racehorse, spearheads a strong Ryedale challenge on the £100,000 William Hill Lincoln Handicap on the opening day of the new Flat turf season.

As a result of his wonderful triumph in the Winter Derby, a Group Three affair, which extended his unbeaten run to a magnificent seven wins on artificial surfaces, Gentleman's Deal has been installed the 8-1 ante-post favourite to add his name to the roll of honour in the historic Lincoln, in which he will be up against - among plenty of others - last year's Ryedale winner, Blythe Knight, trained by John Quinn.

"Good ground is what he needs," says Easterby, as he prepares to switch Gentleman's Deal back to turf. "He's in grand form after Lingfield, never been better."

Last Saturday's success was achieved under a fine ride from his regular jockey Paul Mulrennan, who was registering his first Group-race victory. "He's a machine," declared Mulrennan, whose air-punching salute after crossing the line, a neck to the good in a blanket finish, gave some indication of his joy at capturing the most prestigious race of the winter all-weather campaign. "The boss has done a great job on this horse," added Mulrennan, whose only worry at Lingfield was that Easterby seemed insistent on giving him a big kiss on the cheek at the trophy presentation!

Easterby, who celebrates his 76th birthday this week, and who had never previously visited Lingfield, bought Gentleman's Deal out of Ed Dunlop's Newmarket yard. A horse with a classic pedigree, he was already a winner, but was very lightly-raced and was reputed to be a talented horse, but difficult to keep sound.

"I never gallop him. He goes out twice a day and does a series of little canters. He never sweats and he never blows," explains Easterby, who is a past master at coaching horses with problems.

"It's been a fairytale," adds the Sheriff Hutton trainer, who handles the horse for Driffield owner, Stephen Curtis. "How many horses could you use as a stallion as well as racing them? He covered 40 mares last spring, his first three foals were born recently, and he's got 50 mares waiting for him this time. He's a remarkable horse with a wonderful temperament."

A challenge of a different kind awaits Gentleman's Deal at Newcastle. Having proved unbeatable on all-weather surfaces, he now has to transfer that ability to turf. He will race off a mark 20lb lower at Newcastle than in the Winter Derby, but the simple fact remains that his form on grass is vastly inferior to his exploits on sand. That said, he could hardly be going into the Lincoln in better form.

By a curious coincidence, Blythe Knight is a former stable-companion of Gentleman's Deal, having also been trained by Ed Dunlop before John Quinn purchased him in the autumn of 2005. He has proved a great buy and his success in last year's Lincoln was the indisputable highspot.

Although Blythe Knight has since proved himself a very able hurdler, Quinn has purposely trained him for a repeat Lincoln victory, which went so far as to missing a tempting engagement over timber at the Cheltenham Festival earlier this month.

"He's in very good nick," reports Quinn. "He's had three runs over hurdles this winter and has also finished second in a conditions race on the Flat. I didn't want to run the risk of pulling the guts out of him at Cheltenham, which is why we bypassed the Festival, and I couldn't be happier with him going into Saturday. He's fit and well."

He's also chasing a piece of racing history. Not since Babur in 1957-58, has any horse won back-to-back Lincoln Handicaps. Babur was trained by Capt Charles Elsey at Norton's famous Highfield yard, which is nowadays occupied by Quinn, and which is home to Blythe Knight. A wonderful Highfield double will be achieved, if he can conquer his 19 rivals on Saturday in this straight-mile cavalry charge.

The Ryedale challenge for the first big handicap of the new campaign also includes Rio Riva and Bolodenka, who represent Julie Camacho and Richard Fahey respectively.

They have had totally different preparations, Rio Riva having not raced since last turf season, unlike Bolodenka, who has been performing in Dubai this winter.

Both are very able handicappers, and Rio Riva, who recently had a racecourse gallop at Southwell to put the finishing touches to his big-race preparation, is the shorter-priced of the pair. He is second-favourite to Gentleman's Deal at around 10-1. Bolodenka is generally a 14-1 chance.

Add to the line-up, the likes of Zero Tolerance, trained at Maunby near Thirsk by David Barron, and My Paris, the representative of Hambleton trainer Kevin Ryan, and there's every reason to believe that the first major event of the 2007 Flat turf season will be won by North Yorkshire.

Whether Gentleman's Deal can prove the real deal by following-up his Winter Derby triumph, just one week on, would be another story - a fairy story. One thing's for sure, this is a race not to be missed, live on Channel 4 on Saturday afternoon.

***** Malcolm Jefferson may have failed in his bid, earlier this month, to land the Championship Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival with Tot O'Whiskey, but he is gearing-up to have another tilt at the equivalent race at Aintree's Grand National Festival in a couple of weeks time.

Massasoit is the horse likely to be Aintree-bound, and, on what we've seen so far, there's every chance that he'll travel to Merseyside with sound prospects.

A decisive winner on his debut at Catterick, the son of Supreme Leader followed-up under a penalty in similarly authoritative style at Ayr last week, again ridden by Jefferson's competent amateur, Ollie Williams. A horse with a bright future, Massosoit will doubtless be aided in his Aintree bid by some ease in the ground.

***** Altay, who has been such a good servant to the Richard Fahey stable, has been retired, following an injury.

"He's cracked a sesamoid, which is a great shame. That sort of injury takes a fair while to heal and, as he'd be 11-years-old next year, we've decided to retire him," said Fahey.

Altay, one of the Gazette's Ten to Follow' over jumps this season, won a total of 12 races, nine on the Flat, including the Bollinger Final at Ascot last September, when he helped Barry McHugh secure the Bollinger Amateur Riders' Championship. His biggest success, however, came in 2003 when he won the valuable Swinton Hurdle at Haydock in the hands of Padge Whelan.

***** Sad to relay the death of Paul Davey, who has passed away at the age of 81.

A son of Ernie Davey, a highly-successful Norton trainer, Paul acted as assistant to his father until 1968 when he moved to Newmarket and trained for multi-millionaire David Robinson, for whom he enjoyed outstanding success before retiring from training in 1974 when his employer began to wind down his racing interests.

Davey is best remembered for training My Swallow, the champion juvenile in 1970, top sprinter Deep Diver, and Gimcrack winners, Yellow God and Wishing Star.

Davey died in a nursing home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on March 7, but it was only last week that news of his death emerged which, unfortunately, came too late for the racing community to pay its respects at his funeral, which had already taken place the previous week.