Via Serendipity may go for Royal Hunt Cup now
VIA Serendipity may have booked himself a last-minute ticket to Royal Ascot in bouncing back to winning ways at Sandown on Saturday.
A winner at both Windsor and Goodwood last season, the Charlie Fellowes-trained eight-year-old had failed to get seriously competitive on his first two starts this spring, but showed his true colours in Esher.
Under a well-timed ride from top apprentice Harry Davies, the 11-2 winner took over the running deep inside the final furlong of the race and displayed a willing attitude to fend off Coase by a neck.
Fellowes said: “He has taken ages to come to hand this season. As he is an eight-year-old, I gave him a nice long holiday, but he took forever to come back and was one of the last horses to lose his winter coat.
“He ran poorly at Newmarket and Windsor, but the last month he has turned inside out and he was gleaming in his coat today.
“I was pretty confident he would run a nice race. The ground had come right and Harry gave him a peach of a ride.
“He is in the Buckingham Palace, but seven furlongs is too sharp so it will be the Royal Hunt Cup or nothing. If he sneaks into the Hunt Cup we will definitely think about it.”
Meanwhile, Mitbaahy continued his ascent up the sprinting ladder with an impressive victory in the Coral Scurry Stakes.
Placed twice in Listed company last season, Roger Varian’s Profitable colt opened his account for the current campaign in a conditions race at Hamilton last month to earn himself another rise in class.
Given a confident ride by David Egan, the 9-2 chance moved smoothly into contention entering the last of five furlongs and finished strongly to beat the pacesetting Live In The Dream by a length and a half, with 13-8 favourite Caturra a closeup third.
Varian said: “I’m very pleased with him, I think he’s progressing and he’s a real five-furlong horse – he’s got a lot of speed.
“He ghosted into the race very impressively and put it to bed nicely as well, so we’re very pleased.”
Mitbaahy holds an entry in the Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes at Royal Ascot on Friday, but will not be taking up the engagement.
“He’ll likely go back to Sandown in a few weeks’ for the Coral Charge, all being well,” Varian added.
“I put him in the handicap at Ascot in case he didn’t win today. I thought if he was beaten maybe half a length and we were due to go up half a dozen pounds, it would be our last chance to exploit his mark in a handicap. But having won as he did, I don’t think it would be necessary to go to Ascot under a penalty.”
And Ralph Beckett and Silvestre de Sousa combined to land the opening Coral Free Bet Handicap with 9-4 favourite Vee Sight.
■ Ed Crisford was delighted to see Without A Fight stamp his class on the Sky Bet Race To The Ebor Grand Cup Stakes at York.
The five-year-old won in handicap and Listed company in the autumn and kicked off his 2022 campaign by finishing a head second to last week’s Coronation Cup hero Hukum at Meydan.
He subsequently failed to land a telling blow in the Dubai Sheema Classic on World Cup night, but made a pleasing return to British soil when third in the Group Three Al Rayyan Stakes at Newbury last month.
Stepping up in trip but down in class for this one-mile-six-furlong Listed contest, Without A Fight was sent on his wat at 4-1 in the hands of Andrea Atzeni as he conceded 3lb to each of his five rivals.
The five-year-old was never too far off the pace set by Kemari and knuckled down well to prevail by a length and three-quarters from the strong-finishing John Leeper.
Crisford, who trains Without A Fight in partnership with his father, Simon, said: “It was a great run and he did it really well.
“They went so slow early and nobody really wanted to go forward, but once he got into a rhythm he settled and he showed his class, winning with the penalty.
“Now that he’s won over a mile and three-quarters, it does open up a few more options, so we’ll see.”