'I said I'd never ride again but it's like a drug, isn't it?' - Geoff Harker on the mend and back among the winners

Talk about tough. Geoff Harker, who suffered multiple injuries in a frightening plunge through a roof last year that left his wife thinking he was dead, is now fighting fit and he celebrated his second winner of the season with Rocket Rob.

Not only did he declare himself fully recovered but he also revealed that was back riding out just six weeks after an accident which left him with a fractured skull as well as broken bones in his back and a broken rib.

Harker, a former jump jockey who has been training in North Yorkshire for more than 20 years, said: "I'm in good shape physically, touch wood. I ride out every morning. I was off that for six weeks after the accident, then I was back on. I said I'd never ride again but it's like a drug, isn't it?"

Rocket Rod pipped Cassy O by a nose over the straight seven furlongs to score his fourth success for Harker since he was bought for 7,000gns in 2020.

Reflecting on his season, the trainer said: "We're chipping away. We're quiet and we only have half a dozen horses in now but they're all capable.

"We're more into farming now and that supports this – this doesn't pay at the moment. But the owners I do have are good and Rocket Rod has been a good little horse for us.

"I think the secret to him is a straight track, he can't go round a bend at all. They've gone hard today and that's helped him."

'On his day he's a proper little horse'

Bypassing Royal Ascot paid off for Bond Chairman, who had finished fourth in the Windsor Castle Stakes and then the Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes in the last two years, as he landed the £30,000 5f handicap here on his first run of the season.

It was only by a nose that he got the better of Mondammej under William Buick and trainer Bryan Smart said: "He battled back – he's not very big but he's all heart.

"If you look at his Ascot form, we fancied him today. On his day he's a proper little horse."

Not so much fun for the horses

It was "superhero family fun day" but concerns were raised about the positioning of a funfair next to the canter down and the high noise levels close to runners in the parade ring.

The stewards held an enquiry after the first race, hearing from Paul Mulrennan, Buick, the clerk of the course and a representative of the racecourse executive.

It was agreed that the funfair would be turned off while runners for the two-year-old race were in close proximity, and for the remainder of the meeting the sound would be turned down while horses were in the paddock. Runners also used the top exit from the parade ring to avoid the noise.

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