ALTHOUGH Battaash disappointed it was still a very good day for Hamdan Al Maktoum who saw his Talaayeb (9/1) run out a narrow but clear-cut winner of the Group 3 Sky Bet City Of York Stakes over seven furlongs.

The diminutive filly, leading home a small army of challengers after David Allan had led yet again on Mubtasim, had a neck and a short head to spare over 20/1 chance Toscanini with Suedois, who seems destined to run well without quite lifting the bauble, right behind in third.

The result was a notable success for Chris Hayes, who was summoned by Angus Gold and Richard Hills when it became clear that retained rider Jim Crowley might struggle to make the allotted weight of 8st 6lb. Crowley rode the unplaced Rusumaat, who showed up briefly with a chance but dropped right out.

The 2012 winner of this race, the gallant Gordon Lord Byron, was one of any number of horses spread right across the track in a challenging position before fading inside the final furlong.

Talaayeb, out of Sheikh Hamdan’s influential mare Rumoush, was another feather in the cap for rookie trainer Owen Burrows. She was having only her fourth outing and had finished an excellent fourth in the 1000 Guineas before stepping up to a mile and a quarter in the Ballymacoll Stud Stakes at Newbury. Clearly she has plenty of speed and dropping back to this seven-furlong trip did not inconvenience her at all.

“I had the call from Angus Gold and Richard and they asked if I was doing anything on Friday!” Hayes explained. “Jim probably had the choice but it was a weight issue in the end. She’s actually a very nice filly and if she’d been beaten it would have been my fault but she was very well balanced at the finish.”