Newbury Saturday
WITH almost £100,000 to the winner, it’s hard to argue that the Weatherbys Super Sprint wasn’t the race of the weekend in Britain, for all it lacks blacktype status. While he has a long way to go to emulate his father’s haul of seven winners, Richard Hannon is also making a habit of winning the coveted prize, and produced a third winner of his own in the contest with Gubbass (Sean Levey), who beat stablemate Symphony Perfect (Ben Curtis) by half a length to secure a 4/1 success.
Neither Chipotle nor Vintage Clarets, who dominated the market after big runs at Royal Ascot, could make the frame, but there were excuses for the Windsor Castle winner Chipotle, who was badly hampered twice as he attempted to make ground. He can have this run written off, and remains the type to pick up a group race over this trip on fast turf.
Pattern horse
Hannon believes the winner, who cost just £26,000 when bought by Charlie Gordon-Watson at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale (held at Newmarket), is a pattern horse who has just needed a little time, and has designs on a Group 2 at either Goodwood or York.
“We’ve always liked Gubbass a lot,” the trainer said. “We didn’t go to Ascot because he was growing, but he’s a very good horse by a sire who is getting very good horses. I wondered if he had the experience for today and it frightened me a bit, and it looked like he’d finish eighth and not know enough, but his class pulled him through. He’ll probably go to the Richmond, but he’s in the Gimcrack as well.”
HAPPY Romance (Richard Hannon/Sean Levey) has been an incredible first foray into racehorse ownership for the McMurray Family, and last year’s Super Sprint heroine gained another important win when landing the Group 3 Hackwood Stakes from a sextet of higher rated rivals.
Held up in the rear early in the race, the daughter of Dandy Man was switched a furlong out and finished off well to get the better of Diligent Harry (Clive Cox/Adam Kirby) and 2020 winner Tabdeed (Owen Burrows/Jim Crowley) to win by a neck and a nose at 11/1.
On paper, this appears an improvement from Happy Romance, but it’s possible the draw played a part, with some of the runners tacking over to the stands rail and the field converging again with just over a furlong and a half to run.
That is quite an unusual move at Newbury, and the rail is rarely, if ever, favoured. In the end, it was those who raced up the centre initially who dominated, and while Happy Romance needed all her battling qualities to prevail, she probably didn’t advance much in strict form terms. She has the King George Stakes at Goodwood as her next target, which will require a bigger effort again.
POSSIBLY the most eye-catching run of the weekend came from the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained Real World (Marco Ghiani), who looked beaten with a furlong to go, but produced an impressive burst of acceleration to take the Listed Steventon Stakes by a length and a quarter from Derab (John & Thady Gosden/Martin Harley).
Ghiani, who appears set for stardom given how impressive he has been in the saddle this year, was given to celebrating the 15/8 favourite’s win with a punch of the air.
A dominant winner of the Royal Hunt Cup on his previous outing, Real World again looked something out of the ordinary as he recovered from being pocketed behind the winner to run out an ultimately decisive winner from a horse who was considered by his connections to be good enough to run in the Prix du Jockey Club.
Derab looks like he might be a bit better than listed class on this showing, and if he is, then the sky might be the limit for the suddenly progressive Real World, who seems to have thrived for the switch from an artificial surface to turf on his last two starts. He’s in the Unibet Golden Mile at Goodwood next week, but that is likely to be his last acquaintance with handicaps, and connections may think the Group 2 Lennox Stakes is a more suitable target for the son of Dark Angel.