Hanagan springs majestic surprise

MAJESTIC DAWN tore apart his rivals to deliver a 40-1 surprise win in the bet365 Cambridgeshire Handicap at Newmarket and hand jockey Paul Hanagan a hugely emotional victory.

The two- time champion had feared his career was over after fracturing his T-6 vertebra in a fall at Newcastle in February and did not make it back until August.

The 40-year-old said: ‘This gave me so much pleasure, it was very special. I was out for six months and I didn’t think I was going to make it back, so I’m delighted.

‘It was a tough time but days like this make it all worthwhile.’

The 27-runner Cambridgeshire is one of the toughest handicaps of the season but the colt trained by Paul and Oliver Cole turned it into a procession, leading half a mile out and winning by four and threequarter lengths.

Majestic Dawn had finished fifth in last year’s race but had been kept off the track this season by a series of niggles until a run at Kempton earlier this month.

Hanagan had earlier finished third on Richard Fahey-trained Umm Kulthum in the Group One Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes won by Andrew Balding-trained Alcohol Free.

The Group One Middle Park Stakes went to Supremacy, who made all the running under Adam Kirby before holding off Lucky Vega by hal f a l ength with Minzaal two-and-a-quarter lengths further back in third.

Tr a i n e r Cl i v e Cox said of Supremacy: ‘He’s a speedball and likes to get on with it.’

Cox has strength in depth in his two- year- old team. He landed F r i d a y ’s Ro c k f e l S t a k e s at Newmarket with Isabella Giles, while Nando Parrado, who won the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, will go for either the Group One Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp on Sunday or the Dewhurst Stakes back at Newmarket in a fortnight.