Dragon Leader roars to scintillating York victory

Another big sales prize could be on the agenda at Doncaster.

Dragon Leader blew his rivals out of the water with a runaway victory in the Goffs UK Harry Beeby Premier Yearling Stakes at York.

The Clive Cox-trained colt had won both career starts going into the race, taking a pair of Salisbury novices and subsequently arriving at York well-fancied as the 7-2 joint-favourite.

Under Ryan Moore he made light work of a big field, surging into an unassailable lead to score by an impressive four and a half lengths from fellow market leader Ziggy’s Condor, in scenes almost reminiscent of Mums Tipple in the 2019 renewal.

Cox said: “We liked him and that’s three from three, so it was no surprise (to see him win), but to do it quite as comfortably as he did was great.

“Ryan got into a really nice rhythm and to see him kick like he did was amazing, so we’re very happy.

“It means a great deal to win Harry Beeby’s race as he was a very close friend.

“Ryan is top drawer and I think our strike-rate is pretty good when he does occasionally dip in, but a lot of thanks goes to John Fahy who worked hard on this horse in the spring as well.

Ryan Moore returns with Dragon Leader
Ryan Moore returns with Dragon Leader (PA)

“He’s in the sales race at Doncaster (Weatherbys Scientific GBP 300,000 2-Y-O Stakes), which is a jolly nice prize as well. His median value qualifies him really nicely for that, but we’ll just see how we go.

“That was always the intention, but we’ll be thinking about that (Group races) properly as well.”

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