Richard Fahey may have been out of luck with Wootton Bassett in the French 2000 Guineas, but his excellent form continued as Kay Gee Be landed the feature race at Ripon.
In what made a refreshing change for Sunday racing, there was £18,000 on offer in the Ripon, Yorkshire's Garden Racecourse Handicap, and the course was rewarded with a highly competitive field.
Kay Gee Be normally makes the running, but with Space War and Snow Bay forcing a brisk early gallop, Tony Hamilton was content to sit in fourth place before kicking on running into the dip, and the 100-30 favourite held off the fast-finishing Dubai Dynamo by half a length.
Fahey's assistant Robin O'Ryan said: "He was flat out with two to run but he kept going. Tony gave him a great ride. He's shown he is versatile now and that he doesn't have to lead.
"Tony thought they were going a suicidal pace, so he dropped him in and used Plan B. He's a good work horse and we're having some fun with him."
David O'Meara's star continues to rise and after he went close in the Yorkshire Cup with Blue Bajan last week, he produced Pepper Lane (10-1) to win first time out for the second year running in the C.B. Hutchinson Memorial Challenge Cup.
The filly, racing off 56 at Redcar last season, defied a mark of 74 on this reappearance, bouncing out of the stalls under Danny Tudhope and never seeing another rival in winning by three and a half lengths.
Winning part-owner Dave Lumley said: "I shouldn't have sold half a share in her, should I! We didn't think she was ready for today and Danny said she blew up a furlong and a half out, but she kept going. I only had £20 on her."
William Haggas improved his already excellent record at Ripon in recent years when Trojan Nights landed some hefty bets in the gottohavediamonds.com Maiden Stakes.
He took his record to 10 winners from 30 runners inside the last five years as the 2-7 jolly always looked like doing the business under Eddie Ahern. Godolphin's Sir Francis Drake, out of 1000 Guineas winner Cape Verdi, stayed on pleasingly for second.
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