Racing: Spencer gives Nunthorpe rivals a start to beat draw on Kyllachy

York Ebor Meeting: 1,000 Guineas favourite Russian Rhythm overcomes trouble in running as she quickens to win the Lowther Stakes

Kyllachy survived a competitive suicide attempt here yesterday on the Knavesmire to establish himself as the fastest horse in Europe. There is no better way to throttle your prospects over the lightning five furlongs of the Nunthorpe Stakes than to give your challengers a head start, yet Henry Candy's colt allowed such generosity and still managed to win. He must be some machine.

Kyllachy had been allotted stall 15 of 17, a coffin box according to his jockey Jamie Spencer, who determined to massage a different place in the field than his draw suggested. Soon after the start, the young Irishman dropped back and started tacking over to the far rail. After a furlong he was last, largely because he had been going as quickly sideways as forwards.

By some legerdemain, however, the partnership eventually found themselves right up against the far rail and, at the line, half a length to the clear. Spencer celebrated lock-kneed in the stirrups. He celebrated a victory for his audacity.

"It was a decision [to switch across] I had to make because the ground had been quicker there all week," he said. "All the winners had been coming from there. It would have been on my shoulders if I'd messed up. If I'd come back beaten a head after giving away that ground I'm sure it would have been to a kind word from some of the owners."

Kyllachy had been a quiet and almost apologetic figure in the parade ring before the Group One contest, but, out on the racecourse proper he was a different animal, a more pumped up and dangerous one. Candy now believes he ought to be recognised as among the leading sprinters of the modern day. "I know you'd expect me to say amongst the best of them but I mean that," he said. "He's got the gift of being able to quicken up off the very strongest pace. He just changes onto his left leg, gets lower and goes quicker.

"He wants cut in the ground so he must be somewhat better than the others if he's won on this going. I would like him to go to Longchamp [for the Prix de l'Abbaye] and Hong Kong would be a possibility later in the year."

This success also represented a Nunthorpe closure for Candy, whose Eveningperformance was just denied here by Pivotal, coincidentally the sire of Kyllachy, in 1996. Yesterday's winner is part-owned by the Cheveley Park Stud, who enjoyed a thunderous afternoon, also collecting the Bradford & Bingley with Funfair and the Lowther Stakes with another flying beast in the shape of Russian Rhythm. Sir Michael Stoute's filly is as low as 5-2 with the Tote (4-1 is available with Coral) for next year's 1,000 Guineas after attempting hara-kiri of her own in the most significant juvenile fillies' contest of the year thus far. Two furlongs out Fallon and Russian Rhythm lost virtually all momentum as they ran into a cul-de-sac created by the drifting Wunders Dream. "I thought my race was over," Fallon later admitted. "I thought there was no chance of recovering from there."

Then there came light, however, and a devastating burst from Russian Rhythm which qualified her for the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket in October. "She's got everything you need," Fallon added. "She's got gears, travels well and a great temperament. She's just a perfect filly." Michael Fenton, on Wunders Dream, was rather harshly given a four-day ban for being part of the swerve and Kevin Manning two days for careless riding on Danaskaya in the same race.

The landslide though came in a Melrose Stakes which featured an almighty disturbance involving Kasthari, Dune and the winner, Total Turtle. When the asterisks and exclamation marks had stopped jumping and the dust settled there was a two-day suspension for Johnny Murtagh and five each for Richard Hughes and Spencer, who had earlier picked up a one-day ban for improper use of the whip on Kyllachy. He, at least, has another, better reason to remember the last day of the Ebor meeting.