THE prestigious Northumberland Plate took place in front of a packed grandstand last Saturday and, in glorious sunshine, Quest For More ran out a deserving winner for Roger Charlton and George Baker.

The delighted winning trainer, who also enjoyed recent success at Royal Ascot, said: "As a four-year-old, he was very consistent and only once out of the first two, but this year he must have improved about 20lb, as he was already up 14lb and will be going up again for that. I can't account for it as we haven't changed a thing. He takes no training and we are doing everything the same as we did before. It's a great win for all our team."

Also delighted was the winning jockey, who said: "It is not an easy task to win a race like this and he got there and was just doing enough when he hit the front. You have got to think he could build again from this. Normally this is such a rough race, but I had an untroubled passage the whole way round. When you are drawn where I was you need a little luck to get out, but it just opened up for me."

Earlier on the card, Mark Johnston introduced a star newcomer in Plagiarism, who came home in front, leaving the Middleham handler impressed. He said: "Plagiarism has shown us plenty at home and she was going very well early on. She was going to be one of our early two-year-olds, but she had a bit of a setback."

Johnston, who at the time of writing had saddled 20 winners in the past fortnight, also enjoyed success at Chester on Saturday, this time with the game Enlace.

Given an excellent front-running ride from Joe Fanning, the filly is enjoying a fine season and afterwards the trainer's son Charlie said: "Enlace is a filly we've always liked. She won first time out at Hamilton last season, but was a little disappointing after that. But she's doing really well now and is improving all the time."

Hamilton raced on Tuesday afternoon and there was little doubt about the best performance of the day as Fast And Furious ran out a very impressive winner of the opening maiden for James Bethell and PJ McDonald.

Bethell, who has a couple of smart juveniles, was represented at the meeting by his son Ed, who said: "Fast And Furious is a nice horse. He's bred to stay at least seven furlongs as a two-year-old and should be a mile-and-a-quarter horse next year. PJ said they went quick and he ran on well when he met the rising ground."

Bethell's neighbour Jedd O'Keeffe was also on the mark as Graham Lee steered More Mischief to success later in the afternoon.

Speaking in the winners' enclosure, O'Keeffe said: "More Mischief is a nice filly who is doing well. On today's ground she didn't seem to handle the downhill part of the course too well, but she came home well. She'll stay further in time, but we'll keep her to a mile and a half for now. She's a filly who needs soft ground, softer than this ideally."

The worst news in the horse racing world came on Tuesday afternoon that Cheltenham hero and jumps racing superstar Kauto Star had died after suffering pelvis and neck injuries in a freak paddock accident.

During a glittering career with champion trainer Paul Nicholls, the 15-year-old won the King George VI Chase at Kempton five times and became the first horse to regain the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

He retired from racing after pulling up in the 2012 renewal of the blue riband, having won 23 of his 41 races and captured well over £2m in win and place prize-money.

Nicholls, who deserves so much credit for the way handled this superstar, was quick to pay tribute, saying: "It's obviously a very sad day and very sad news to take on board. I'm obviously mortified.

"He was like my best mate really. I saw him every day and he was a great horse in every way temperament-wise.

"When he left, it was obviously a big hole we had to fill in everybody's lives. He'd been so good for racing and so good for everybody.

"When something like this happens, it's awfully sad, but sometimes things are unavoidable.

"It hasn't really sunk in, to be honest. Everyone is very upset. It's happened and we've all got to get on.

"He was very sharp, not always easy to deal with and he had his own way of doing things, but he was just a brilliant horse and from day one he was always going to be very classy."

So sad indeed, a horse of a lifetime and I don't expect to see his like anytime soon.