Silver sparkles for super win

Silver Grecian maintained his unbeaten record as he showed a devastating turn of foot in the Group Two Meydan Superlative Stakes at Newmarket.Aidan O'Brien's Emperor Claudius and Karl Burke's Silenceofthewind cut out the running but as the field approached the dip the challengers emerged. Michael Hills looked to have nowhere to go on John Ryan's juvenile but he waited for the gap to emerge and the 5-1 chance shot past Roi De Vitesse to claim the prize by a length.Hills said: "John is a young trainer with 10 horses and is training fantastic. He's produced this horse impeccably every time. We've built this horse's confidence up and we took a chance but I thought it was in there. He's got a great turn of foot and I wanted to use that as I didn't want to get involved in a staying race."Ryan added: "It's been a team effort and Michael has been with me all the way. We've always thought this horse was nice and I made a confident decision to enter him for the Chesham at Royal Ascot, but we just felt the horse needed more confidence."It took two nice little races to get him here and although his last one came a little closer than we wanted ideally, he came home from that and looked like he'd come off the gallop. He made it look easy in the end, the trainer must be very good! It's been an unbelievable season and this was always the target."Rod Millman said of the runner-up: "It's lovely for John to win a race like this although it is a shame we didn't beat him. He ran a great race but he was just beaten by a better horse on the day and I expect he'll go to Goodwood now."Mark Johnston, trainer of the third, Shakespearean, said: "The Chesham came to soon for him as he is a very laid-back horse. Royston (Ffrench) said if he'd waited and then come through the field he might have been closer."Brief Encounter put a disappointing run at Royal Ascot behind him with a stylish display in the Premier Travel Handicap.Well fancied for the Britannia Handicap, Andrew Balding's charge failed to fire but was still only a 5-1 chance for this competitive-looking heat. Royston Ffrench tried to make all on the favourite Crackdown, but Liam Keniry guided his mount over to the far rail to get the better of the jolly by three-quarters of a length.Balding said: "I don't know what happened at Royal Ascot, he ran a poor race and we were disappointed at the time. He did finish ninth in the Britannia but we were expecting more and that was much more like it today. He hit a flat spot two furlongs out and when he hit the rising ground, he's picked up and gone on well."