King George Qatar Stakes (Group 2)

IT’S been a frustrating season for connections of Highfield Princess (John Quinn/Jason Hart), but she had shown in a trio of luckless defeats that she was as good as ever, and given a good draw for a change, she was supported as if defeat was out of the question. She blitzed her rivals for speed to run out the winner by three lengths from outsider White Lavender (Karl Burke/Clifford Lee), with that mare a neck in front of Raasel (Mick Appleby/James Doyle). Odds against in places when the market opened after declarations, Highfield Princess was sent off at the remarkable SP of 4/9.

Highfield Princess jumped well from stall three, but Hart was content to let speedy Czech raider Ponntos to give him a lead, and the pace was rapid, taking a few out of their comfort zones. The two who travelled notably well behind the leader were the mares who eventually filled the top two places.

Slipstream

White Lavender slipstreamed the leader going easily, but despite that the eye was drawn to Highfield Princess, who Jason Hart was struggling to hold, and when he let out an inch of rein with a furlong and a half left, by which time she had already pulled herself to the front, she fairly scampered away, and those who backed her into such a skinny SP never had a second’s worry.

A triple Group 1 winner last year, Highfield Princess will surely add to that tally before long, and a clash in the Nunthorpe at York with Wednesday’s Molecomb winner Big Evs, who Hart also rode, now looks on the cards.

“Chop my legs off”

Asked about that, Hart replied: “I hope they run him in the Gimcrack Stakes. Even if he did run in the Nunthorpe I wouldn’t be able to do the weight - I’d have to chop my legs off to ride him! This filly means so much to me and she’s taken my career to a new height. There are a lot of good riders in the weighing room and some of them never find a horse like this.

“The character she has is what makes her. I thought today was a step back in the right direction and she will be even better at York.”

THE Group 3 Thoroughbred Stakes was expected by many to be a walk in the park for Nostrum, fresh from a stylish win in the Listed Henry Cecil Stakes at Newmarket; things appeared to be going to plan with Ryan Moore grabbing an immediate lead on Sir Michael Stoute’s colt, and when he shrugged off the attentions of the pestering Bold Discovery a furlong and a half out, it seemed for all money that he would put the race to bed.

The 4/6 favourite was racing on a softer surface than he had experienced before however, and couldn’t match the finishing burst of Epictetus (John and Thady Gosden/Frankie Dettori), with that colt getting firmly back on track (no pun intended) for the return to an easy surface, having shown all his best form in the mud.

Epictetus tracked the pace on the rail, and Dettori pulled him out to challenge a furlong out, soon joining the leader and quickening to gain a length win over Nostrum, with the pair a length and a half clear of third-placed Galeron (Charlie Hills/Tom Marquand).

The winner was returned at 6/1 and seemed to benefit not only from the softer ground, but from the drop in trip, which was suggested by owner George Strawbridge, one of very few people able to tell John Gosden that he might be getting it wrong.

‘Perfect ride’

“It was a perfect ride from Frankie,” said Thady Gosden after greeting the winner. “He broke well, sat him on the fence, followed Ryan and did a Houdini move, but being Frankie that worked out. Nostrum is a very smart horse, but Frankie gave our horse a brilliant ride.

“Epictetus ran a very good race last year at Doncaster when second to a future Derby winner on soft ground.

“He rolls his knee a little bit and is bred to like a little bit of give in the ground. It is slightly less tacky today and a bit more good to soft. There is a mile race back here, the Celebration Mile, which fits in well.”

HAMISH (William Haggas/Tom Marquand) is never a horse to look flashy as befits his connections’ Yorkshire heritage, but he’s a ‘proper ‘oss’ as they say in God’s Own County, and has carried the colours of trainer’s father Brian Haggas to nine wins from less than double that number of lifetime starts.

Sent off at 5/6 for the Group 3 Glorious Stakes, he took a while to warm fully to his task when asked to run down Jack Darcy (Paul and Oliver Cole/Neil Callan), but when he did hit full stride as the ground began to rise, he was relentless, and pulled four lengths clear of the longtime leader in the last furlong.

The winner’s stablemate Candleford (James Doyle) looked a big threat with a quarter of a mile left, but couldn’t keep his run going, and was a further length and a quarter lengths back in third.