Chest the job
LOCKINGE WIN SETS UP FAHEY FOR DERBY DOUBLE
RIBCHESTER will attempt back-to-back triumphs at Royal Ascot next month after ‘Plan B’ came together in the Group 1 Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury yesterday.
The 7-4 favourite’s stablemate and intended pacemaker Toscanini made a sleepy exit from the stalls, leaving jockey Will Buick to make his own running.
But, having set conservative fractions in the rain-softened ground, Ribchester powered away from his rivals in the last furlong of the one-mile test to beat closest pursuer Lightning Spear by three and three-quarter lengths. The four-year-old’s trainer said: “That’s why I never give instructions to jockeys. It wasn’t really Plan A – it was Plan B – but I felt Ribchester could do something like that.
“Last year he used to work with a lot more enthusiasm – he’s just got a little bit lazy on me at home – but this horse can go 0-35 in four strides. He’s got a lot of speed – a Ferrari engine.”
Fahey saddled Ribchester to glory in the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot last year, and the one-mile Queen Anne Stakes is likely to be his target – in preference to the 10-furlong Prince of Wales’ Stakes – on the royal heath next month.
“For me, while he’s winning
Group 1s like that, it’s very hard to change his distance,” opined John Ferguson, CEO of Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin venture, winning the first older-horse Group 1 of the domestic campaign for the eighth time.
“We have got [the André Fabretrained] Jimmy Two Times for the Queen Anne, and therefore the Prince of Wales could become an option. But my personal feeling at this moment is stick to what you know you’re good at.”
Buick, mulling over an appeal against a five-day ban incurred at York on Thursday that threatens to rule him out of the Investec Oaks and Derby next month, added: “He’s getting mentally better and physically stronger every day – he’s got a very bright future.”
Ribchester’s victory took him ahead 3-2 in a private battle with last year’s 2,000 Guineas hero, Galileo Gold.
The Classic winner faded into weakened under Frankie Dettori and, while his trainer Hugo Palmer seemed disinclined to discuss the run – “Would you leave me alone, please?” was his response to interrogation – Harry Herbert, racing manager to owner Sheikh Joaan Al Thani, offered: “He hated this really heavy ground, and emptied.”