Regular punters at Catterick will have had a good day as two winners on the card were repeating their victories of 12 months ago and both Night Trade and the 10-year-old Eijaaz seem to have a special affinity for the venue.
Eijaaz is a real character and certainly thinks about the game, but he was winning for the 12th time in his 79th race in the racinguk.com Classified Claiming Stakes.
Sent off at 2-1 under Robert Winston, Geoff Harker's veteran was registering his seventh win at the track when arriving from the rear to beat Hel's Angel by half a length.
The trainer said: "He doesn't fill you with confidence on a morning, but when he gets here he comes alive. He's been a star for us and he keeps the numbers up. That's three he's won this year and he won four last year too. He'll have a home for life with us."
Night Trade (5-1) bounced back to form for Deborah Sanderson in the 12th August Is Ladies Evening Handicap. Despite carrying top weight to victory, she was actually racing off a 2lb lower mark than last year in beating North Central by a length and a quarter.
Silvestre de Sousa moved ahead of Paul Hanagan for the first time in the race to be champion jockey after a double, taking the opening two races on Mark Johnston's Eraada and Tim Pitt's Dark Spirit.
Eraada (5-1) won the British Stallion Studs Supporting British Racing EBF Maiden, while Dark Spirit (5-4 favourite) hacked up in the yorkshire-outdoors.co.uk Selling Stakes by 12 lengths.
Hanagan pulled one back when Blown It got up in the final few strides of the Book Now For Saturday 17th September Handicap. The well-backed 6-4 favourite has found a new lease of life since joining Keith Dalgleish.
The champion jockey said: "He needed plenty of persuasion. He doesn't do himself any favours because as soon as he gets in the stalls he has a bit of a mess about and nine times out of 10 he misses the break. They went hard up front, which suited him as he had something to aim at."
Of the title race, he went on: "It's going great again this season. The title is not the be-all-and-end-all, but the next month will be vital. You only need to see what happened to Ryan (Moore) to see how quickly it can change. I'll be trying to steer clear of injury and out of the stewards' room."
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