Jimmy Fortune completed a 356-1 double when booting home Final Lap in the opening sport4cast.com Claiming Stakes and Hopeful Light in the Unicoin Homes Joel Stakes at Newmarket.
The latter, sent off as a 20-1 chance, produced a brave front-running performance to land the Listed event for in-form trainer John Gosden who also supplied the third, El Gran Papa.
At the head of affairs from leaving the stalls for the one-mile trip, Hopeful Light looked likely to be swallowed up by On The Ridge as the runners came out of the dip but Fortune got one more effort from the Warning gelding who stayed on to deny his main rival by three-quarters of a length with his stablemate a further neck back in third.
The winner is likely to stay in training at Manton according to owner Khaled Abdulla`s representative Teddy Beckett, with the third set for a trip to America.
'El Gran Papa will run in the Oak Tree Derby at Santa Anita on October 21,' said Gosden. Referring to the winner, Gosden commented: 'The nine furlongs at York last time was too far for him. He is much better at this distance.
'He`s a little bit like another horse I used to train, Decorated Hero. He liked the girls too much, we had to have him gelded.'
In his first season at Manton since moving from Newmarket, Gosden paid tribute to his staff for the way they assisted him over the move and subsequent campaign.
'The essential ingredient is team spirit and they are the ones who ride the horses. I can`t, I`m too big,' he said.
'They get a feel for them and can let me know if anything is wrong.'
The day proved a bit of a bookmakers` benefit with some big-priced winners including the Fortune pair.
Final Lap began proceedings in a positive way for the layers with Willie Jarvis` charge setting off a 16-1 shot on the book, and paying over 37-1 on the Tote.
He was brought with a steady sustained run in the final furlong of 12 by Fortune to deny 50-1 outsider Wensum Dancer by a length.
The AmandaPerrett-trained Fliquet Bay (16-1) finished a length and a quarter further back in third.
'He`s been very disappointing which is why I ran him in a claimer,' admitted Jarvis.
'He showed decent form as a three-year-old but I felt he was always too high in the weights early on and was set too much to do.
'He is the half brother of Lap Of Luxury who I trained but not half as good.'
Things did not improve for punters in the day`s second Listed event, the JRA Nakayama Rous Stakes, with the winner Rushcutter Bay, a 20-1 shot under Francis Norton.
Trained locally by Pat Gilligan, Rushcutter Bay, who denied the fast- finishing 11-2 favourite Astonished by the minimum short head, is the star of the small seven-horse operation, according his trainer.
'He`s the only reason I`m here,' said Gilligan of his first Listed-race runner.
'We`ve never managed to win two races in a season with him before such is the nature of the competition in these sprints.
'In fact we nearly pulled him out when we saw the number of entries for this race.'
Rushcutter Bay, who had been a 66-1 chance in the morning exchanges, slipped his field coming out of the dip in the five-furlong dash and just held on to repel the challenge of the favourite on the line.
Gosden completed a near 136-1 double when Malhub stayed on strongly to deny 2-1 favourite Amicable in division two of the European Breeders` Fund Westley Maiden Stakes by a neck.
Division one of the seven-furlong event went to the Amanda Perrett-trained Demophilos under Pat Eddery.
