Racing: Risky has Sullivan holding the folding

THAT well-known patron of literature and the arts David Sullivan was in the money in spades (no trumps, even) at Newbury yesterday, when his two-year-old filly Risky justified odd-on favouritism in the pounds 56,912 Weatherby And Sales Super Sprint Trophy Sakes.

Sullivan, proprietor of Sunday Sport, paid 12,000 guineas for Risky as a yearling and, going into yesterday's race, the daughter of Risk Me, well handled by Richard Hannon, had already made that look a steal with three wins from four starts, amassing pounds 37,581 in win and place prize-money, including a five-length victory in the Group 3 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.

If watching Sullivan's bargain basement purchase beat their better-bred, hence more expensively bought, animals - Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum's dollars 110,000 purchase Elrafa Ah was a distant third to Risky in the Queen Mary, for example - has not been enough for such multi-millionaire owners to stomach, yesterday's race seemed designed to give Sullivan the chance to rub more salt into richer men's wounds.

Restricted to horses which fetched 30,000 guineas or less at the sales - and with weight allowances of a pound for each 2,000 guineas a horse cost below that threshold - the race conditions made Risky a form-book certainty. Flying up the rails, she led from halfway in the five-furlong contest and won by a length from her stablemate Pommes Frites. Risky will follow the same path as last year's Hannon-trained winner, Lyric Fantasy, and take on older sprinters in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York.

Hannon said: 'Risky has put on weight and is stronger since Ascot. Although it is difficult to compare, I would say Lyric Fantasy was a bit quicker at this stage of her career. The ground is the key with Risky. Her only defeat came on firm going. I will not run her on it again.'