A LATE afternoon meeting at Wolverhampton on a Monday wouldn’t usually throw up many northern-connected winners but this week’s fixture was a bit different.

First up, Co Donegal-born jockey Martin Harley won the opening mile and six handicap on board the Alan King-trained This Ones For Fred. This was a first success on his 11th start for the three-year-old Markaz gelding who was bred at the Meadowlands Stud in Downpatrick by Brian and Ann Marie Kennedy.

The bay is the fifth of eight foals out of the twice-placed Oratorio mare Green Chorus who is the dam of the three-time winner Stealth Fighter (by Kodiac) and is a half-sister to, among others, the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Millisle (by Starspangledbanner).

Both divisions of the concluding seven-furlong handicap also fell to northern-bred horses.

In the first half, the honours went to the Dandy Man filly Beryl The Peril who justified 5/4 favouritism by a length. The three-year-old was bred by CAFRE Enniskillen Campus out of Lady Of Rohan, a daughter of the recently deceased Pivotal.

The Wolverhampton winner is the third of four recorded foals out of her unraced dam who is a half-sister to six winners, headed by King Of Arnor (by Monsun), and comes from the family of Aragorn, Savannah Dancer, etc.

Northern Ireland-born, but longtime England-based trainer Sylvester Kirk saddled Rania to win division two. This was a second career success for the three-year-old Estidhkaar filly who was bred in Downpatrick by Patrick Turley out of the twice-placed Red Ransom mare Little Oz who has bred two other winners and is from the family of Hawke, Big Occasion and Forgotten Voice.

Maxwell survives enquiry

LAST Friday was also a good day for northern-connected winners and it was particularly pleasing to see amateur David Maxwell win the concluding three-mile handicap hurdle at Newbury on his own Dolphin Square – and then survive a stewards’ enquiry into the result.

The London property investor was winning for the sixth time on the seven-year-old Shantou gelding who is trained for him by Philip Hobbs.

On the horse’s seasonal debut at Lingfield earlier in the month, the combination was beaten by half a length into second by the 15/8 favourite, Khan.

Earlier in the day at Doncaster, in the four-runner three-mile novices’ handicap chase, The Newest One easily saw off the only other finisher, the 11/10 favourite Huntsmans Jog, by eight and a half lengths.

The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained winner, a six-year-old gelding by Oscar, is a half-brother to the 20-time winner The New One (by King’s Theatre) having been bred by Ronald Brown out of the Turgeon mare Thuringe.

At Leicester last Sunday, the Nicky Henderson-trained Surrey Quest won the extended two-and-a-half-mile novices’ hurdle in the hands of James Bowen.

Second in a Warwick bumper in May on his only previous start, the four-year-old Milan gelding was bred in Castlewellan by Sean McElroy and is the first of four foals, and the only one named to date, out of the once raced Desert King mare Roztoc.

She is a half-sister to four winners including Masters Hill (by Tikkanen) and Now This Is It (by Accordion).