Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
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Murphy stuns Pinatubo to win 2,000 Guineas Balding reveals: ‘Now we’re going for The Derby’
KAMEKO led where it counts to give champion jockey Oisin Murphy a first Classic triumph – and trainer Andrew Balding the 2,000 Guineas victory that eluded his father Ian.
But the Rowley Mile test proved beyond the hitherto unbeaten Pinatubo... so racing’s search for a superstar goes on.
The build-up to the race – thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, run five weeks after its scheduled date – revolved around 5/6 hotpot Pinatubo, who won all his six races in 2019 to earn the highest juvenile rating for 25 years.
In the event, Will Buick’s partner had to settle for third as Kameko, on whom Murphy carried the silks of his boss Qatari Sheikh Fahad AlThani, collared Wichita and Frankie Dettori strides from the line to win by a neck in a race-record time.
The winner is a son of American stallion Kitten’s Joy, also sire of Roaring Lion, who launched 24-year-old Murphy’s career with four Group 1 successes in 2018 – but lost his life to colic last August.
Choking back tears, Murphy said: “This means the absolute world to me. In those colours, for Andrew Balding – who I started my career with – and the same sire as Roaring Lion in Kitten’s Joy. You couldn’t make it up.”
Protocols to make the racecourse a safe environment meant the race was staged behind closed doors and
Murphy added: “There isn’t the same atmosphere – in fact there is no atmosphere – but it means just the same to me.”
Balding, 47, was not born when his father saddled Mill Reef for the 1971 Guineas.
The colt went down as one of the sport’s true greats with triumphs in the Derby, Eclipse, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe that season – but found Brigadier Gerard too good at Newmarket.
Balding reflected: “One of the big regrets of his training career was not winning a Guineas. He always wanted to win the Guineas, so he’ll be absolutely over the moon.”
Kameko is now Ladbrokes’ 4/1 favourite for the Investec Derby at Epsom on July 4. “There’s only one
Derby and I’d be very keen to go that way,” admitted Balding, who tasted Epsom Classic glory with Casual Look in the 2003 Oaks.
“Probably his optimum trip would be a mile and a quarter, but – for one day only – he might be able to stay a mile and a half.”
Pinatubo could now bid to recapture winning form at Royal Ascot on Saturday week.
Trainer Charlie Appleby said: “Obviously I’m disappointed as it’s the first time the horse has been beaten in his career.
“But at least he hasn’t fallen out of the back of the telly.
“We’ll take him home, but the first impression would be to take him to the St James’s Palace
Stakes.”