BEN BROOKHOUSE is aiming African Spirit at this Friday’s British EBF £100,000 Final for colts and geldings, at York.

The two-year-old son of Showcasing delivered a stunning debut display at Newcastle just over a fortnight ago. He bolted up by five lengths in a ‘restricted maiden’ over seven furlongs in the hands of Dougie Costello.

African Spirit’s impressive win came during a hot streak for Newmarket-based Brookhouse, who is enjoying an eye-catching first full year as a trainer.

Brookhouse said: “We’ve always thought he was nice, but he was going to take time. We took him to Newcastle, thinking he might go okay. He used his stride and his clear ability that he’s shown in some bits of work to decimate them, beating horses with experience.

“I said to Dougie that day, ‘just make sure he knows what it’s all about’. It was great – my first two-year-old winner. It was brilliant.”

Now Brookhouse has readied African Spirit for a pop at York’s valuable seven-furlong prize, having won over the same distance in late September.

He added: “We were considering going for the 30-grand novice at Kempton. We saw this race at York and it kind of fell within the same sort of timeframe.

“He has come out of his Newcastle race in good form. He’s took a step forward from it. He’s done one piece of work at home, which has shown that it’s improved him.

“And given a little bit of rain around, as he’s got quite a high knee action, he’s going there a fresh horse off the back of a nice win. If the strength and depth of the race is as it seems – he gets in off a nice weight – I expect he’ll go very, very close.”

Ben, the son of successful National Hunt owner Roger Brookhouse, has a dual-purpose string that’s notched 12 Flat winners and eight ‘NH’ victories in 2023.

“You can only be pleased,” is the trainer’s reaction to how the year has gone so far. “I did a year as a pupil-assistant to Hugo (Palmer) and a year is probably not long enough to learn how to train out of Newmarket.

“So, I’ve spent a lot of time just finding my feet and figuring out how to train jumpers from Newmarket, more than anything. There’s a very simple regime for training Flat horses.

“But it’s the details that make us different. If you can spot the details and eliminate the small issues that people don’t realise exist, then your horses come to life and they start enjoying their racing. We all do things a lot better when we enjoy doing it.”

African Spirit will once again be partnered by Costello in a race – due off at 3.15 – against 17 rivals.

Friday’s card commences at 2.05pm. Saturday brings the final Knavesmire race-day for 2023 and the highlight is set to be the £100,000 Coral Sprint Trophy.

The two-day fixture will bring to a conclusion the race to land the Charles Clinkard Top Trainer at York crown. Malton-based Richard Fahey is ahead by two from William Haggas and Kevin Ryan. The Living North Magazine Top Jockey at York title will also be decided with William Buick in pole position.

Watch all the action on Racing TV.