'It's been brilliant' - Ben Curtis claims 1,000th British winner

Ben Curtis celebrated his 1,000th British winner after favourite Merrijig held on for victory in the 1m6f handicap.

The 34-year-old jockey, who rode his first British winner in 2009, has enjoyed 24 victories at Group and Listed level including with the talented filly Dandalla for longstanding ally Karl Burke and last year's York Stakes winner Sir Busker. 

Curtis claimed a career-high tally of 169 wins in 2020 and victory on the John Berry-trained five-year-old was his 79th success this year, which has included two Listed victories this month on Kerdos and Al Musmak. 

"I didn't even know it was my 1,000th winner to be honest," the jockey told Racing TV. "Every milestone takes a lot to achieve so I'm delighted with it. 

"There's been plenty of highlights and people who have helped me along the way. I came over here and started from scratch over a decade ago and it's been a lot of hard work, so it's a good number to get to. 

"There's loads of trainers who have helped and I'd be here all day thanking them. I came over to the late Alan Swinbank, who was great and gave me my first opportunity, but there's been so many since. It's been brilliant." 

Foy on form

Townsend Manor relished a first try over five furlongs to break his maiden in impressive fashion for the in-form Kevin Philippart de Foy. 

The two-year-old gelding showed a touch of class to break first and make all under David Allan, powering clear of the field to score by over three lengths from Circus Lion. 

It was a first success in five starts for the son of Advertise, who was denied victory last month when reeled in at Ripon but thrived on a reduced trip to deliver Philippart de Foy a fourth win from his last six runners. 

"He's done it well," the trainer said. "He's sharpened up a lot with racing and the drop back to five furlongs really suited him. We ran him over a furlong too far last time but he showed a lot of speed here and put the race to bed nicely. 

"He's improving all the time and I'm delighted with him. We don't have a huge amount of options at this time of year over five furlongs and I don't want to really run him on soft ground. We would be looking to step up in class, so we'll just have to see what conditions are over the next couple of weeks." 

New partnership

The day after claiming his 100th winner Billy Loughnane secured another noteworthy success when he struck on his first ride for Amo Racing in the 1m2f handicap. 

The 17-year-old jockey picked up his first ride for Kia Joorabchian only a week after the operation parted ways with retained rider Kevin Stott, with Loughnane making use of the opportunity to strike on Forceful Speed for George Boughey.  

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