PALLASATOR, a giant of a horse but rather disappointing so far this season, finally got everything right in yesterday’s Socialites E-Cigarettes Expert Doncaster Cup and won the Group 2 event in clear-cut style from Willie Mullins’ Clondaw Warrior with Suegioo an honourable third.

The race was a personal triumph for Sir Mark Prescott, who has always rated this quirky son of Motivator but had sometimes wondered if the horse would ever reproduce his home form at the track.

The trainer had everything worked out here because, whilst some supposed that stable-companion William Of Orange had at least as good a chance following his game third in the Goodwood Stakes, the latter effectively acted merely as pacemaker, lobbing along until Pallasator brushed past him with over two furlongs to travel and galloped on strongly to hold Clondaw Warrior by three-parts of a length with Suegioo the same distance away.

BEHAVED HIMSELF

Pallasator played up on the way to start and might easily have demolished a plastic running rail or two. However, he behaved himself once Andrea Atzeni, with his feet out of the irons, asked him to canter down and there were no problems with stalls entry. Hacking along behind his stable-companion, with Seamour and Simenon prominent, it soon became a question of when Atzeni would press the button.

As soon as he did, Pallasator looked different class and won quite comfortably, fully justifying his starting price of 9/2 favourite.

“We all know what he’s like, he’s quirky but as soon as the stalls opened he was very professional,” Atzeni said. “It was a good, even pace and we had something to aim at. It’s great for Sir Mark and great for Qatar Racing, of course.”

Quite a character, Pallasator was still tossing his head this way and that on the return to the unsaddling enclosure but he did not have an overly hard race here and there must be a chance he will follow up in the Stayers’ on Champions Day at Ascot. That is the logical target and connections will hope he is in a similar frame of mind.

“He’s very talented but even getting him to the start was quite a performance and Andrea did very well,” Sheikh Fahad said. “He was a gentleman afterwards and sometimes with horses you just have to wait for them to come right. If he could follow up at Ascot on Champions Day it would be fantastic.”

Quite a few failed to get into the argument yesterday. They included dual winner of the race Times Up, who has been a grand servant to John and Ed Dunlop but was promptly retired following this latest renewal.