THE HAND OF GOS!
Top trainer storms to Ascot treble
Victories at the Qipcosponsored Flat season finale for hotpots Cracksman (5-6, Champion Stakes), Roaring Lion (2-1, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes) and Stradivarius (evens, Long Distance Cup) left the bookies battered and bruised.
At least the layers live to fight another day after Lah Ti Dar, the remaining runner in Gosden’s much-feared ‘four horses of the apocalypse’, finished third as the even-money market leader for the Fillies & Mares Stakes, won by Magical.
Cracksman has endured a stop-start year since his imperious sevenlength triumph in the Champion Stakes 12 months ago.
But, having his first start since a shock defeat at Royal Ascot in June, Gosden believed the son of Frankel’s concentration had wavered after an encounter with fillies running on the heath. Frankie Dettori’s mount, fitted with blinkers to keep his mind focused, signed off his career on a high, lifting the 10-furlong Group 1 by six lengths.
“It’s super to have him back,” said Gosden, 67, who held a lead of more than £1million at the top of the trainers’ table coming into the £4.5m card.
“He got very distracted at Royal Ascot by the girls coming back from the Windsor Forest Stakes but he’s back to his best.”
Roaring Lion’s courageous neck margin under Oisin Murphy in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes – his final race – came with a royal seal of approval for the colt’s owner, Qatari Sheikh Fahad Althani. As the driving force behind Champions Day, Al-thani watched the one-mile Group 1 with the Queen in the Royal Box.
“She enjoyed it – I think!” smiled Al-thani. “I hope I wasn’t too loud.
“She congratulated me straight away.”
Al-thani’s retained jockey Murphy, 23, winning his fifth toplevel prize in Britain this year – and eighth in Europe – revealed: “It was tough today, but he wanted it – what a fantastic stallion he’s going to make.”
The afternoon had begun with a Dettori Houdini act as the Italian performed an act of escapology to capture the Group 2 Long Distance Cup on Stradivarius.
Dettori, who had been trapped on the inside rail, said: “I needed a gap – it came sooner than I wanted, but I had to go for it when it appeared.”
The bookies had the rare sensation of cheering on an Aidan O’brien winner as Magical fended off Gosden’s Coronet and Lah Ti Dar for the Group 1 Fillies & Mares Stakes.