Ascot triumph for the horse no one wanted
THE most glittering prize in British Flat racing served up the most heart-warming result as Pyledriver, the colt nobody wanted when he failed to attract a single bid in a yearling sales, landed the £1.25million King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes.
The 18-1 shot powered home by two and three-quarter lengths from Germantrained 2021 Arc winner Torquator Tasso with Mishriff, who fluffed the start, a gaping eight lengths further back in third.
Further in arrears in fifth and sixth, beaten 18 and 15 lengths, were the highly touted three-year-olds, Irish Derby winner and 13-8 favourite Westover and Oaks runner-up Emily Upjohn.
Pyledriver provided the biggest win in the career of 40-year-old former jump jockey PJ McDonald, who in 2007 landed the Scottish Grand National on Hot Weld.
The least surprised man on the track was Willie Muir, 64, who has trained in Lambourn since 1991, the last two in partnership with Chris Grassick.
In just under 150 seconds Pyledriver won £708,000, more than Muir has done in any of the entire seasons he has been training.
Muir has endured some rollercoaster moments with Pyledriver, including an unplaced run in the
2020 Derby and missing out on a £2.6m pot when the colt was unlucky and narrowly beaten in the Sheema Classic in Dubai in March.
But he has remained chief cheerleader for the colt who gave him his first group one race win in last season’s Coronation Cup at Epsom, never wavering in his faith in Pyledriver, who was bred by his co-owners, brothers Huw and Guy Leech and Roger Devlin out of a dam called La Pyle (who was hopeless in five hurdle runs in Britain).
Muir, who had driven his horsebox to the track, said: ‘I honestly believed he would win from two weeks ago after I saw him work. When this horse is right he is a beast and I knew he was ready.
‘Westover was breathtaking in Ireland and he ran a fantastic race (when third) in the Epsom Derby but he had never beaten Pyledriver. This is a tough race and when they went hard they set it up for us because it was a case of who was going to come home hardest.
‘I almost jumped the rails when he won — I was through the crowd like a leveret. I knew it was all over a furlong out. I’m proud of him and all my whole team. We are a small yard and to get a horse like this is what you dream of.’
Muir spared a thought for his brother-in-law and Pyledriver’s regular jockey Martin Dwyer. He has been sidelined since March with a serious knee injury in a fall.
Muir could have turned to a bigger name than McDonald but stayed loyal to a rider who has now won both times he has ridden him.
Muir added: ‘If Martin came back tomorrow he would ride him. He has made this horse what he is and he’s told PJ how to ride him.’
McDonald said: ‘We had a plan for the last couple of days and everything panned out. I can’t believe it.’
It was stamina that counted most for both the winner and runner-up and they were helped by a punishing early pace set by Westover, who wasted energy running with the choke out, and Broome. Westover was a spent force by the time the field reached the home straight while Emily Upjohn’s jockey Frankie Dettori reckoned she had not lasted in the red-hot tempo.
The Arc is now the aim for Pyledriver, where he will face a rematch with Torquator Tasso. The French race on October 2 remains the aim for Westover, whose trainer Ralph Beckett said: ‘He wasn’t good enough today. It didn’t happen for us.’