SUPER GHAIY FRONTS UP All-the-way Cup winner breaks course record
GHAIYYATH was ruthless from start to finish to land the Group 1 Hurworth Bloodstock Coronation Cup at Newmarket in a course-record time.
The seven-strong line-up for the first Group 1 of the remodelled Flat season included Defoe, winner of the race at Epsom last June, champion stayer Stradivarius and
2019 Derby hero
Anthony Van Dyck.
But it was Will Buick and Ghaiyyath, a brilliant winner of Germany’s Grosser Preis von Baden last September before a Prix de l’arc de Triomphe flop the following month, who proved the dominant force.
Sent into a clear lead, the Godolphin five-year-old powered up the hill to beat Anthony Van Dyck by two and a half lengths – with Stradivarius in third – and give Buick and trainer Charlie Appleby the perfect portent for hot favourite Pinatubo’s QIPCO 2,000 Guineas bid today.
“He was on it from flagfall,” said Appleby. “I could see he was in a rhythm we’d seen before. His mid-race move kills them and it’s great for him to get his first British Group 1 win. “To have five-year-olds around is a treat for any stable but to have one of his calibre is pretty special. We had a lot of confidence that we had him in a condition that we haven’t seen before.
“His strength is there and the way he was finishing off his gallops suggested he was the finished article,” added Appleby, who will now prepare the winner, who is ridden on the Newmarket gallops by Frankel’s lad Shane Featherstonhaugh, for a clash with Enable in the Coral-eclipse Stakes at Sandown on July 5.
The prospect of a step back from a mile and a half to 10 furlongs is no concern to Buick, who added: “He has a phenomenal cruising speed.”
Last season’s champion apprentice Cieren Fallon registered the first Group victory of his career at the first attempt as Oxted made all the running for the Betway Abernant Stakes.
“That has ticked off one of our goals,” said 20-year-old Fallon (left). “My boss, Mr [William] Haggas, sent me to America to get my fractions right and I controlled the pace on the rail.”