Silver Tankard result: King High powers clear in the Pontefract mud as Craven Force springs 100/1 shock

King High relished the testing conditions to land the Listed British Stallion Studs EBF Silver Tankard Stakes at Pontefract on Monday afternoon. Sent off at 5/1 for Owen Burrows, the son of Kingman came from off the pace under Cieren Fallon to win the mile contest, the feature race on a seven-race card, by two lengths.

Fallon was happy to bide his time towards the rear on the heavy ground, before switching the colt wide to make his move over two furlongs out. King High hit the front over a furlong out and was soon pushed clear, with Adrian Keatley’s Tyrrhenian Thunder, who had led over two furlongs out, keeping on for second. Hugo Palmer’s Game Character, the 9/4 favourite, was a further three-and-three-quarter lengths back in third.

This was only the fourth start of King High’s career, and he has progressed with each run. He was fourth on debut at Sandown in July before winning a Newbury maiden in August, and he then went down by just a neck at 22/1 in a conditions stakes back at the Berkshire track last month. Heavy ground at Pontefract in October will not always produce the strongest Listed form, but he could hardly have done this more impressively, and Burrows can now dream of pitching him into Group company next season.

Favourites flounder in the Pontefract mud

Game Character kept on at one pace without ever threatening the winner, and the other market leaders fared even worse. Michael Tregoning’s Silverella, the 3/1 second favourite, raced wide and keenly before weakening into fifth, while Ralph Beckett’s Undiscovered, sent off at 7/2, was always towards the rear and finished seventh of the eight runners.

Craven Force springs a 100/1 shock

If King High’s success was a triumph for the form book, the same could not be said earlier on the card. Craven Force was a 100/1 outsider in the 1m nursery, having been beaten at 300/1 in the Tattersalls October Auction Stakes at Newmarket earlier this month, but he made a mockery of those odds to get off the mark at the seventh attempt.

Craig Lidster‘s gelding chased the leaders under Duran Fentiman, before leaving all of his previous for behind staying on strongly to beat Statten Island by two-and-a-half lengths, with the margin being no fluke. William Haggas’ Under Arrest, one of two 11/4 joint-favourites, was half a length further back in third. Off a lowly mark of 54, Craven Force will go up in the weights for this, but connections will not mind one bit.

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