Minstrel Knight provides perfect Finale with York victory

Ed Bethell’s Minstrel Knight continued a fruitful season when winning the valuable William Hill Finale Handicap at York.

The three-year-old has not been out of the money all season and got his head in front last time out when taking a one-mile-six-furlong handicap at Haydock by five lengths.

After clearly handling the extended trip and heavy ground on that occasion, the gelding lined up on the Knavesmire under Aidan Keeley a 7-1 chance to take on the same trip, in a race worth £51,540 to the winner.

Once again he stayed on best of all, switching to take a path along the inside rail ahead of the final furlong and then remaining resolute at the head of affairs to score by two and a half lengths from Filibustering.

“It’s a nice prize to win, he’s been really consistent,” said Bethell.

“He’s a really fun horse and he loves this type of ground. We gave him a summer holiday and one of the owners had this race in mind, I probably didn’t as I didn’t give the horse as much respect as he deserved!

“He’s done that really well, he stays and he likes the ground. He’s in the horses in training sale, but he’s clearly a pretty talented stayer on this type of ground.

“We could look for something else if we decide to keep going, we might look at the November Handicap, but that could still be a bit sharp for him over a mile and a half.

“There’s a lovely race at Musselburgh next year for 100 grand, four-year-olds and upwards, he could slip into that unexposed. That could be a plan.”