Doncaster Saturday
THE British turf season drew to a close at Doncaster on Saturday, with the traditional cavalry charge of the November Handicap the final call for the senior jockeys, albeit with all-weather racing continuing through the remaining weeks of the year.
The big handicap proved yet another success for Alan King’s flat squad, which has done the Barbury Castle trainer proud through the campaign, and it was again one in Henry Ponsonby’s familiar colours who broke the tape first, with On To Victory taking the spoils under James Doyle.
Placed on three previous flat runs this season, On To Victory relished the soft ground to run out a comfortable winner by one and three-quarter lengths from Rhythmic Intent and Nuits St Georges. The gelding joined King last year for a hurdling campaign, but failed to win in four attempts despite showing plenty of promise. He’s the type to do a lot better for his initial experiences, and his ability to handle winter ground means connections are likely to have another jumps campaign marked out for him.
He will be easier to place over hurdles than on the level, with his mark back to 105 in the latter sphere, but a very tempting 125 in the latter.
Gold for Dods
The Michael Dods-trained Dakota Gold (Paul Mulrennan) has been one of the highlights of the autumn, and this enthusiastic front-runner gained a third consecutive blacktype win when making all to land the Listed Wentworth Stakes over six furlongs, beating outsiders Aberama Gold and Zim Baby despite arguably going off too hard in the conditions. He’s got an admirable attitude to go with his tough constitution, and will be back for more next year.
The Listed Gillies Fillies’ Stakes was dominated by Ralph Beckett, with the homebred Chamade (Richard Kingscote) making all the running and repelling the late thrust of stablemate Trefoil (Rob Hornby) to win by three-quarters of a length.
Described as slow-burner by her trainer, Chamade has shown her best form when setting a strong pace, and she may well have more to offer if kept in training. The second only really got going when changing her legs and has found her form having been highly tried in the summer. She’s another who ought to land a stakes race if kept on the go.
WITH the season officially ending with the final turf meeting, there was the small matter of crowning the leading jockeys, and it was a case of history repeating itself, with both Oisin Murphy and Cieren Fallon (champion apprentice) retaining their status.
Murphy withheld the late challenge of William Buick to end the season top of the table with 142 wins for the season which started on June 1st.
Cieren Fallon became the first apprentice to gain back-to-back titles since Gary ‘Angry Ant’ Bardwell in 1988. His 48 wins in the turf season included a coveted Group 1 on Oxted in the July Cup, while he also signed a retainer to be second jockey for Qatar Racing during the year, and his future looks bright indeed.
“I’m incredibly proud to have won a second champion jockey title and I’m extremely thankful for the team around me that have enabled me to do so – my agent, manager, driver, form-man, and family,” Murphy told Great British Racing. “It’s huge to win two jockeys’ championships in two years and beyond my wildest dreams. I tried my absolute best to do so and thank you to everyone who has helped along the way.”
Cieren Fallon was also keen to thank those who enabled him to achieve his championship: “It’s an amazing achievement for me, it is something I set out to do after the success of last year.
“I’ve been very lucky to have the people I have around me to help me achieve these goals: my jockey coach, nutritionist, a great boss in Sheikh Fahad, William and Maureen Haggas, and my mum and dad.”