The Gimcrack Stakes at York emerged as a likely target for Gis A Sub after he got off the mark with a narrow success at Pontefract

Beaten a nose into second place by the Richard Hannon-trained Bosh on his racecourse debut at York a couple of weeks ago, Kevin Ryan’s juvenile was the 5-4 favourite to go one better in the £20,000 British Stallion Studs EBF Spindrifter Conditions Stakes.

Sent straight to the lead by Tom Eaves, Gis A Sub showed signs of inexperience in the closing stages, but had enough in reserve to repel the challenge of Hellomydarlin by half a length.

“He’s a very progressive horse and a horse we think an awful lot of,” said Ryan.

“Obviously he idled a bit in front there today. He’ll improve and learn from that race again, but we’re very pleased with his performance.

“He’d done everything right before his first run – we don’t take them to York if we don’t think they’re good enough – and we’ll look towards going back there now for the Gimcrack.

“I don’t think we’ll run him again between now and then, but we’ll just see how he comes out of the race – if we think he needs to run again, he will.”

Al Simmo (2-1 favourite) made it three from three for the season for trainer Steph Hollinshead in the Napoleons Casino Bradford Fillies’ Handicap.

Successful at Doncaster and Nottingham on her two previous outings, the daughter of Al Kazeem completed her hat-trick in fine style under Clifford Lee – passing the post with three-quarters of a length in hand over Aramis Grey.

Hollinshead said: “I’m really chuffed with her – she just keeps improving.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t think this has come from nowhere. She was third second time out at Redcar and on her third run at Doncaster she ran against the colts in a race won by Starman. She’s also much stronger this year, so hopefully there’s a bit more to come.

“I know the owner is looking at the Ebor meeting at York in August. She’ll probably run again before then, but I know that’s where the owner would really love to go.”