Copper Knight landed a sixth course success at York when taking the Sky Bet And Symphony Group Handicap, the opening race of the four-day Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival.

Tim Easterby’s seven-year-old showed blistering speed to spring an 18-1 surprise in the sprint over five and a half furlongs.

A winner over the five furlongs on this course in May, Copper Knight was quickly away from stall three on the far side and soon leading the pack under David Allan.

The Sir Prancealot gelding galloped home to record a 10th career success by three-quarters of a length from Live In The Moment. Hurricane Ivor was a neck away in third and Jawwaal a head back in fourth.

Easterby said: “He’s a wonderful horse. Dave said he’s not felt like that for a long time.

“He likes that good ground and just coasted along. He got a nice tow into it and it was brilliant to watch.

“I don’t train him really – he trains himself. He lobs away out the back, canters round and you don’t do anything fancy with him.

“He’s an absolute star and we’ll look at the Portland (at Doncaster) maybe.

“He was in on Saturday at Chester, but he won’t run there now – he’s earned his corn now.”

Irish raider Arcadian Sunrise delighted favourite backers with a last-to-first victory in the two-mile Sky Bet Handicap.

A narrow winner of a valuable handicap hurdle at the Galway Festival three weeks ago, John Queally’s 11-4 chance charged home under a typically patient ride from Jamie Spencer to get up and beat Rajinsky by a length and a quarter.

“He’s a good dual-purpose horse, and it worked out well,” said Queally.

“He won well in Galway, and initially I thought this might be a bit soon for him, but the very next morning he told us ‘we’re going to York’.

“This is a heavenly place, isn’t it? I had a horse placed in the Queen Alexandra when the Royal meeting was held at York, and it’s great to have a winner here.

“I honestly don’t know where we’ll go with him now, maybe the Irish Cesarewitch at the end of the year.”

The Declan Carroll-trained Tweet Tweet (7-1) notched her third win from four starts this year in the IRE Incentive, It Pays To Buy Irish Stakes, with Harrison Shaw the winning rider.

Carroll said: “Carrying that weight today (9st 7lb), that was a good performance.

“She’s all heart and is progressing well. She could make up into a nice filly next year.

“We could look at the Listed race at Doncaster (Scarborough Stakes), but a lot will depend on the ground – she needs fast ground.”

Flaming Rib (16-1) lunged late to land the concluding Sky Bet Nursery for trainer Tom Dascombe and 5lb claimer Pierre-Louis Jamin.