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COCHRANE IS KING ON PERFECT DOUBLE

Royal Ascot beckons for Ray Cochrane's two winners at York on Tuesday.

The jockey scored on favourites King's Mill and Inch Perfect at the first meeting of the year on the Knavesmire.

Cochrane, 42, was seen at his best on heavily-backed 9-2 shot King's Mill as he got the better of Kieren Fallon in the £25,000-added Newton Investment Management Rated Stakes.

He kept getting more from his mount as the champion jockey's partner Secret Agent challenged in the final furlong and took the spoils by a head, to land a string of four-figure bets - and one of £50,000 to £10,000.

Winning trainer Neil Graham said: 'Ray was never worried as he thought the horse was idling and kept finding more.

'He is very tough but thoroughly relaxed and we will have to think about stepping up to a mile and a half for the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot. He won't run again before Ascot.'

Cochrane initiated his 21-1 double with a popular success on Inch Perfect, trained in nearby Malton by Richard Fahey, who justified 3-1 favouritism in the Yorkshire Life Magazine Stakes.

He hit the front inside the final furlong and held off the fast-finishing McGillycuddy Reeks by a length and a quarter.

The gelding was gaining his sixth win since he was bought for 10,000 guineas after landing a selling handicap at Redcar last September.

'He has been a real money-spinner,' Fahey said. 'Inch Perfect was a big, backward horse and he is just coming right. The more racing he has the better he gets and he is progressing very well.

'I don't know where to go with him next. There are lots of options but Ray is quite keen for him to run in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot.'

In-form trainer Gerard Butler made it three wins in three racing days when Kuwait Trooper took the Simon Storage Conditions Stakes.

His Compton Ace finished second in this race 12 months ago and went on to win the Gordon Stakes at 'Glorious Goodwood'.

But Butler stressed: 'I think Kuwait Trooper handled the ground better than anyone else and I wouldn't get excited - there is nothing planned for him.'

Royston Ffrench was handed a one-day ban (May 25) after the stewards judged him guilty of 'careless riding' after his mount Garden Society interfered with Almost Free two and a half furlongs out in the Class B contest.