EAST Ilsley trainer Hughie Morrison was flying high after Chil The Kite sprang a 20-1 upset at York’s Ebor Festival.

Despite being burdened with top weight in the Clipper Logistics Handicap over a mile, the six-year-old stayed on well for George Baker’s urgings to edge out Alfred Hutchinson by a head and capture the first prize of £52,912.

Morrison said: “You don’t win this sort of race off top weight unless you’re pretty good and he is a Group horse, he just loves handicaps as they go a good gallop and he loves going past beaten horses.

“It’s great he’s won a decent race. From the word go you could see they were going quick enough. The problem was whether he could pick them up off this quite dead ground and obviously he could.

“I didn’t come here expecting him to win, so I’m pleasantly surprised.”

Chelmsford City has been a happy hunting ground for Morrison since it opened this year, and the East Ilsley handler made it seven winners from 12 runners at the Essex track with Atalan and Shifting Moon striking at separate meetings in the past week.

Jim Crowley powered odds-on favourite Atalan home by a head in a two-mile handicap, while Kieren Fox was on board as Shifting Moon captured a handicap over a mile and six furlongs.

Wantage-based jockey Cathy Gannon struck on her fifth ride back after three weeks out with a bruised collar-bone when partnering 20-1 shot Call Out Loud to victory in an extended seven-furlong handicap at Ffos Las.

Gannon, who missed Ascot’s Shergar Cup meeting with the injury, was full of praise for the physiotherapists at Lambourn’s Oaksey House after they aided her recovery.

Chilworth Icon, from Mick Channon’s West Ilsley stables, could have a crack at Doncaster’s Portland Handicap next month after landing the corresponding five-furlong handicap at Sandown for the second successive year, with Charlie Bishop in the saddle.

And Idol Deputy repeated his Wolverhampton course and distance win of earlier this month for Letcombe Bassett trainer James Bennett with a half-length success in an extended mile handicap under Racheal Kneller.