Zeus Olympios remained unbeaten with a brilliant success from Opera Ballo in the Joel Stakes at Newmarket.
Karl Burke’s son of Night Of Thunder arrived with a growing reputation after a taking win at Haydock earlier this month and, in his toughest task to date, marked himself out as a colt firmly on the rise when mastering his rivals on the Rowley Mile.
With Spigot Lodge stablemate Flight Plan cutting out the early running in the BoyleSports-sponsored Group Two, Clifford Lee had the keen-going 2/1 second-favourite hot on his heels, with Charlie Appleby’s highly-touted Opera Ballo also in close proximity.
William Buick moved up stylishly to make his challenge aboard Opera Ballo with two furlongs to run, but Lee had the move covered and soon slipped Zeus Olympios into top gear, with the colt responding instantly to surge past the 4/5 favourite inside the final furlong before extending the advantage to two-and-a-quarter lengths at the finish.
More to follow…
Zanthos back in business with all-the-way Rockfel win
Zanthos roared back to winning ways with victory in the BoyleSports-sponsored Rockfel Stakes.
Trained by Simon and Ed Crisford, the €1m breeze-up buy had created a taking impression on the July Course on debut but then had no answer to Touleen when they clashed at Leicester earlier this month.
Although connections were not deterred ahead of the rematch with Owen Burrows’ 11/10 favourite, Zanthos was a drifter before the off and, having been second favourite on the morning of the race, walked out to 15/2 by the time Oisin Murphy exited stall 10 and made his enterprising move down the stands’ rail.
Allowed to bowl along in splendid isolation, the daughter of Sioux Nation cut a fine sight as she blitzed down the Rowley Mile and although Buick on the slowly-away Touleen tracked across in a bid to keep tabs on the runaway leader, it was ultimately The Prettiest Star who gave Zanthos backers most cause for concern in the closing stages.
Ed Walker’s 12/1 chance got within half a length, with Sir Mark Prescott’s Moon Target also running on for third, but they were no match for Zanthos who was cut to 16/1 for next year’s 1000 Guineas by bookmakers. Touleen was only fifth on this occasion.
Ed Crisford said: “We just said to Oisin to keep her happy and let her use her stride. I thought she was maybe doing a bit too much in the early part, but she was travelling so well.
“I was a bit nervous the last half furlong but she stuck on well and she’s a classy filly.”
Reflecting on her Leicester defeat, the trainer added: “We didn’t realise the pace was going to be that slow and we’d tried to do something different. It turned into a two-furlong sprint. Whether that suited Touleen that day I’m not sure, but we put our filly behind and she was doing too much.
“Oisin told us to put a line through the race and to move on, so we were confident we were going to run well today but maybe not beat the Leicester winner.
“She’s obviously a very talented filly with a lot of ability and hopefully she can turn into a proper filly.”
Crisford all but ruled out a return to Newmarket for next month’s Fillies’ Mile and while he did not entirely rule out a possible trip to the Breeders’ Cup, it appears more likely Zanthos will not test her stamina over a mile until next year.
“We always felt she’d definitely stay a mile, but today it looked like she was tying up coming up the hill,” he said.
“The sensible thing is probably to put her away and bring her back for a Fred Darling or a Nell Gwyn in the spring and see where we go from there.
“We always felt she would stay a mile, the riders at home felt she would stay a mile and Oisin feels she could stay a mile.
“She’s a good quality filly and an exciting filly for next year.”
Walker said of the runner-up: “It was a huge performance on the back of one run. You think they’re good, but you never quite know until they come into a race of this nature and she’s shown she’s pretty good.
“We’re very lucky we’ve got a nice bunch of two-year-old fillies and she’d be right up there. She’s a big girl who will do very well from two to three.
“We’ve been slightly bumbling along hoping there might be some decent ground and it came good.
“She got plenty wrong today. Kieran (Shoemark) said she could certainly learn to relax better and I think there’s stacks of improvement, which is really exciting.
“She’s done now for the year and we can start her next season in a Fred Darling or a Nell Gwyn.”
Prescott said of a much brighter effort from Moon Target than at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting: “That was a better effort and I don’t know what happened at Doncaster really, it was just one of those things.
“Today she ran as though she’ll be better over a mile and at Doncaster it didn’t look as if she wanted a mile at all. I’m not quite sure what’s happened in 15 days, but she’s within shouting distance of the good ones and we’ll see what happens.”
He added: “She had disappointed at Doncaster and we tried all sorts of different things – the back man came to see her, we put cheekpieces on her and rode her a bit differently.
“It’s no good standing around doing the same thing when you’ve had a disaster, so I suppose it all adds up.
“I would imagine that would be it for this year as I think she wants fast ground. If she ran again it would only be here (in the Fillies’ Mile).”
Silent Love speaks loudest in Princess Royal Stakes
Charlie Appleby’s apparent second-string Silent Love claimed a front-running victory in the Princess Royal Stakes.
The Dubawi filly arrived on a hat-trick and having won at Listed level last time out was well worth a shot at this Group Three, but stable jockey Buick instead sided with stablemate Spirited Style, who was the 13/8 favourite to get back on track after failing to fire in the German Oaks.
But while the market leader was dropped out in the rear and never really looked like landing a telling blow, Silent Love (4/1) and Billy Loughnane kept finding on the front end and clung on by a neck from Karmology.
Appleby said: “I’m pleased with that, it was obviously a great front-running ride by Billy and she’s a filly that stays and stays well.
“We purposely popped her out in front and let her get into a rhythm as we knew she’d stay, whether she’d be good enough we didn’t know, but she kept galloping and I can’t really fault her.
“Spirited Style had run in the German Oaks and was disappointing, but we put a line through that as she didn’t handle the track at all and on home evidence she’s probably got a bit more dash than Silent Love, which is why William was on her.
“I’d say they went a nice gallop without going end to end, which probably suited the filly in front and might not have suited the filly that was dropped out.
“At this time of year everyone is talking about what’s going to be retired, but I’d say this filly might be worth keeping in training and working back from the mile and six [furlong] races next year.”
Francophone enjoys Rosemary triumph
A dream run up the stands’ rail enabled Francophone to claim top honours in the BoyleSports British EBF Rosemary Stakes.
The bigger price of two runners for trainer Charlie Johnston in the Listed opener on day two of the Cambridgeshire meeting, the Kirsten Rausing-owned filly had been largely disappointing this season, but showed her true worth with a strong finishing effort in the hands of Joe Fanning.
The imposing daughter of Study Of Man got up to beat Hey Boo by three-quarters of a length, with Johnston’s other runner Arisaig in third and 5/2 favourite Elwateen back in fourth, having not enjoyed much luck in running.
Of the 9/1 winner, Johnston said: “She’s a talented filly and based on her Listed win at Goodwood last year I would have hoped that this year she’d be competing above this level really.
“The wheels came off a bit in the middle part of this season. She did have tough trip round in the Pipalong Stakes at Pontefract last time when she was stuck wide and to be honest a week ago I was all for dropping her back into a handicap, but the ground was bottomless at Ayr and we decided against it.
“Joe came in last Friday and had a sit on her and I just thought this filly was back to her best, so I thought let’s not muck around in a handicap and get back in some black-type races.”
