ESTABLISHED, trained at Maidstone by John Best, justified the 450-mile round trip to Pontefract by a winning a £4,500 race.

The five-year-old, claimed out of a seller at Brighton when he was two, scored for the fifth time for Best and took his winnings to an impressive £20,000.

Established was always travelling well and won comfortably. Jockey Sam Hitchcott, the brother of National Hunt and former point-to-point rider Ben, took the Kent horse into the lead two furlongs out and he was never headed.

The race was over two miles and five and a half furlongs, the second longest Flat distance in the calendar. It was the second win in a week for Best.

Whippasnapper, ridden by Graham Gibbons, romped home in a five furlong race at Windsor at 12-1 several days earlier. It was Best's first two-year-old success of the season.

Three of Best's horses are due to run on Saturday. Steely Dan has been earmarked for Leicester while Tweed and Tzar are scheduled for Ripon.

Tzar will be ridden in an amateur riders' race by Best's wife Louise, who will be making her racecourse debut.