`It's amazing what a yard can achieve when the horses are bang right' Alastair Down on another triumph with the fairer sex that has earned James Fanshawe membership of a most select club.

Byline: Alistair Down

THEY used to say "forget Oxfam, feed James Fanshawe", but it has been anything but a thin week for the man who once used a skeleton as a marketing tool along with the motto `Hungry For Winners'.

Yesterday's July Cup triumph was, if you will excuse the expression, his second

Group 1 triumph with the fairer sex in 72 hours - neither of whom were his wife Jacko.

This puts him alongside Vincent O'Brien, Aidan O'Brien and Sir Michael Stoute in a select club of trainers who have saddled winners of both the Champion Hurdle and the July Cup. Vincent won five July Cups, Stoute has three and Aidan two and, while this may have been Fanshawe's first, he is clearly the best trainer of them all because of his feats in the Champion, which, as all the world doth know, is a far more important race than any six-furlong dash through the Newmarket thunderbugs.

Vincent won the Champion three times, but they were all with Hatton's Grace, and Aidan was another one-club golfer, of course, courtesy of Istabraq. But Fanshawe won it with two different horses, Royal Gait and Hors La Loi, and did most of the work with Kribensis when assistant to Stoutey.

Among Fanshawe's many claims to fame is his passion for obscure rock bands and, whereas some yards have soothing music playing in the background, at Pegasus Stables they probably have Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention blasting out at 150 decibels. At Fanshawe's, it is not the horses but the staff who need earplugs.

Johnny Murtagh, so cool on Soviet Song in Tuesday's Falmouth, was definitely wearing his head waiter's outfit on Frizzante, whom he held well off the blitzing pace. His mount still had plenty to reel in with a furlong and a half to run, but she has a stinging turn of foot and scythed up the middle to lead well inside the final furlong, running on strongly to keep it by a fractionally cosy neck.

Ashdown Express ran a fantastic race in second at 100-1, a quite extraordinary price as his official rating is the same as the winner. Seb Sanders won this on 50-1 shot Compton Place seven years ago, and if he had done it again at twice the price the only sound you would have heard would have been birdsong, because you can't hear a pin drop on grass.

The appealing thing about Frizzante is that she's such a fighter. Fanshawe said: "She loves to pass horses, that's her style. She never leaves an oat, she's tough as nails - a real tough sort."

And you could say she has improved a bit, as last May she won her first handicap at the fleshpot that is Leicester off a mark of 70 and went into this 41lb higher, off 111. She is an enviable horse to own and another feather in the cap of her sire Efisio, who also has Attraction flying the flag for him.

It's amazing what a yard can achieve when the horses are bang right. Fanshawe's have been in rude health all season and have always eaten up like Billy Bunter.

It was a marvellous feat to get all six of his Royal Ascot runners placed, but he has surpassed that by taking both the July meeting's Group 1s. Presumably a tall, bespectacled figure will soon be spotted in the more esoteric departments of Virgin Records as he loads up with more ammo with which to torture all at Pegasus stables.

Of the rest of the field, Balmont did notably well given that he hadn't raced for nine months, was lame in the morning, had his leg in an ice bucket and had the finishing touches put to him by a chiropractor and a chiropodist.

Hong Kong raider Cape Of Good Hope, Group 1

and 2 placed at Royal Ascot, ran another corker in fourth, while, among the also-rans, Airwave didn't get much of a run and clearly retains all her ability, though she must slowly be driving Henry Candy round the bend.

The Bunbury Cup went to the underrated yard of Willie Muir via Material Witness, who showed great courage to hold off the chronically unlucky Court Masterpiece by a short nut.

Material Witness's 25-1 result came as some relief to sponsors Ladbrokes, who obviously cleaned up. The result prompted the acceptable face of the firm, Mike Dillon, to observe cheekily: "God looks after his own."

Those listening to him immediately ran for their lives in case he was struck by lightning, but as Mike is a good Catholic and an assiduous attendee at Mass, we will let him off this time!

CAPTION(S):

The "tough as nails" Frizzante takes it in her stride as rider Johnny Murtagh, trainer James Fanshawe (third right) and connections celebrate July Cup success