Thursday, 18 August 2011
Big Race Reviews
Sir Michael Stoute's Sea Moon turned in a most impressive performance in the sportingbet.com Great Voltigeur Stakes.
The 11-2 chance was settled in arrears by Richard Hughes before making stealthy headway towards the stands' rail along the straight.
Odds-on favourite Seville was bang there with a furlong to go, but Sea Moon soon left him for dead, pulling right away to score by eight lengths. Al Kazeem stayed on for second, with Seville passing the post a disappointing third.
Stoute said: "It was highly impressive. He's a horse we've always loved, but he had a few little niggles in the springtime. We were hopeful, but I didn't expect him to win like that.
"He`s a lovely big horse with a good mind, and he's progressed so well since he ran here at York in June. On that performance, he's got a great chance in the Leger, for sure."
Hughes said: " Normally when they move that good they don't have a change of gear, but this fellow moves exceptionally well and he picked up very good, too. Five furlongs out he picked up a lot and he was always going ever so easily."
Roger Charlton, trainer of runner-up Al Kazeem, said: "The winner is obviously very decent and we wouldn't want to take him on again. I'm really pleased with the horse as he hasn`t run since mid-May and we would prefer faster ground.
"We might run him in something like the Arc trial trial at Newbury, but I'm not really sure at the moment."
Last year's runner-up Twice Over lunged late to deny stablemate Midday in the Juddmonte International.
Sir Henry Cecil's dual Champion Stakes winner was ridden patiently by Ian Mongan and cruised into contention alongside Midday and odds-on favourite Await The Dawn, as the pacemaking Windsor Palace dropped away.
Await The Dawn was the first to feel the pinch, and Midday looked to be getting the better of the argument heading inside the final furlong, but Twice Over (11-2) finished off his race best to score by three-quarters of a length.
Cecil said: "The Prince has sponsored this race for years and years and never won it before. And I said to him if we didn`t win it today we`d have to wait for Frankel, hopefully, next year. They both deserved to run. If the ground had been a bit faster, Midday might have given Twice Over a closer race.
"Tom Queally was on Midday and he`s won six Group Ones on her so I wanted him to stay on her, and Ian Mongan was on Twice Over. I`ve always thought a lot of him. He's my second jockey and is very underrated.
"He`s a very good jockey and if he got better rides he`d be right in the top flight. I`m so pleased for him. He really deserved it."
Mongan, securing the biggest win of his career, said: "It's really special. I would like to thank the Prince (Khalid Abdullah, owner) and Sir Henry for putting faith in me because this is as good as it gets.
"I didn't think they went particularly quick and I think Midday and Twice Over probably had a bit more turn of foot to go by. The way it was looking I thought it might be a dead-heat, but he really stuck it out."
O'Brien said of Await The Dawn: "I don't want to take anything away from the other two, but it has been a while since he ran at Ascot and maybe I should have given him another run or a racecourse gallop.
"America (Breeders' Cup Classic) is still the long-term plan and we'll try and find something in between."