RICHARD WHITAKER banished a two-month winnerless spell when Style Dancer landed the Levy Board Nursery at Redcar yesterday afternoon.

The colt stayed on strongly under Kieren Fallon to beat Geoff Lewis's Mike's Double one and a half lengths, with pacesetter William's Well half a length away in third.

Greeting the 6 to 1 winner, Whitaker said: "We thought she was a nice filly at the start of the season but then she had sore shins. Then she ran well to be second at York and the ground was too fast for her at Newmarket last time."

Lewis, himself 65 days without a winner, must be wondering just what he has to do after yesterday.

The Epsom trainer was represented by Loki in the Brass Castle Claiming Stakes, who came with every chance under Kevin Darley only to be denied by a neck by Once More For Luck, the 5 to 4 favourite, ridden by Tony Culhane.

It was Lewis's third successive runner-up as Almuhtaram was a short-head second at Lingfield on Monday.

Darley, who this week announced that he will ride as a freelance next season, could not have given a better advertisement for his skills than aboard South Sea Bubble in the Teleprompter Limited Stakes.

Luca Cumani's four-year-old had shown before yesterday that she lacks an extra gear and Darley had obviously done his homework as he elected to make all the running on the 5 to 2 favourite.