Haydock Saturday

ANMAAT (Jim Crowley) stepped up from handicaps to land the Group 3 Rose of Lancaster Stakes in impressive style at Haydock on Saturday.

Owen Burrows’s son of Awtaad ended 2021 with an excellent second in the Cambridgeshire and then returned from almost 10 months off to capture the John Smith’s Cup at York last month.

That win suggested that Anmaat was well worth trying in pattern company, and the 11/4 shot showed further improvement to score decisively by four lengths here from recent Newbury winner Grocer Jack (William Haggas/Tom Marquand), with Certain Lad (Mick Channon/Ben Curtis) running well for third, another three-parts of a length away.

Anmaat travelled powerfully behind the leaders until asked for an effort by his rider and made quite a deep impression.

Burrows said: “It was a big performance to win at York first time out and he’s pleased me since, so obviously this was a natural progression for him. He was rated 109 there and I think he’ll go up a bit for that (note – he was raised to 117 on Monday).

“That’s what surprised me – just how far he travelled on the bridle for.

“He’s obviously really thriving, and he’s caught me by surprise just how quickly he is improving.”

The Listed Dick Hern Stakes saw just a length and a quarter separate the first four home, with victory going to Marco Botti’s 13/2 chance Rising Star (Marco Ghiani) over Random Harvest (Ed Walker/Saffie Osborne).

The runner-up, whose rider was unable to use her 3lb claim, is rated 89, so the form needs treating with a degree of caution.

Newmarket Saturday

No stopping the Lakota Sioux tale

SHE’S not everyone’s idea of the perfect racehorse, but despite constant tail-flashing on all her starts to date, Lakota Sioux (Charlie & Mark Johnston/James Doyle) keeps progressing, and she stepped up on her third in the Chesham at Royal Ascot to take the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes despite adding another quirk to her repertoire.

The 100/30 second-favourite was always in the van as Alseyoob set the early pace but hung both ways when asked to win her race and ended up all out to beat outsider Dandy Alys (Ralph Beckett/Rob Hornby) by three-parts of a length.

Mottisfont (Hughie Morrison/George Rooke) was a further half length away in third.

In fairness to the winner, her tail swishing doesn’t seem to stop her going forward, and she had every chance to throw in the towel here, so it is unfair to crab her as being ungenuine, for all her demeanour is not pretty to watch.