‘Bizarre’: stewards investigate Quickthorn win over Goodwood rivals
“Bizarre,” said Frankie Dettori after finishing sixth behind the front-running Quickthorn in the Goodwood Cup here on Tuesday. “I’ve seen some weird things, but that was bizarre.”
It was a fair way to sum up a very odd Group One race but, strange though it was, the way it unfolded was hardly unprecedented. Dettori and his fellow riders had been forewarned about the tactics Tom Marquand would adopt on the winner, but they were apparently not forearmed.
Marquand sent Quickthorn straight into the lead and continued to add to his advantage through the first half of the race – just as he had in the Lonsdale Stakes at York last summer. Quickthorn then kept galloping relentlessly as he went into the final half-mile – again, just as he had at York. With a furlong left to run, it was clear the leader was not for catching and the jockeys frantically urging their mounts to close the gap were merely competing for second place.
Quickthorn crossed the line 14 lengths clear in the Lonsdale and had six to spare over Emily Dickinson, the runner-up, on Tuesday, but Marquand said he was not surprised to have been able to pull off the same trick twice.
“He’s a monster, he has that relentless stride,” he said. “I’ve ridden him enough now. I know that if I was following him on one that can travel away, you’d still be thinking that we were going too quick and we’re not going to get home.”
The stewards held an inquiry into the running and riding of several of the beaten horses, including those ridden by Dettori (Courage Mon Ami), William Buick (Broome), Oisin Murphy (Coltrane), David Egan (Eldar Eldarov) and James Doyle (Tashkan). Their explanations that “they did not believe it was in their respective mounts’ best interests” to make ground going uphill and that they believed Quickthorn had “gone off too quickly” on the good-tosoft ground were noted.
Dettori had more to celebrate earlier on the card when Kinross held off Isaac Shelby by a neck in the Group Two Lennox Stakes. Kinross runs in the colours of Hong Kong-based Marc Chan and his ultimate aim this season could be the Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin’s valuable International meeting in midDecember. That, in turn, could mean that Dettori extends his farewell tour of the world’s main events to keep the partnership intact.
“He’s my ATM machine,” Dettori said. “He keeps bringing in the money every year. I think Marc wants to run him in Hong Kong at the end of the season, so fingers crossed for that.”
Later in the afternoon, Jim Crowley received the unwanted news he had been expecting when the British Horseracing Authority’s whip review committee imposed a 20-day suspension and a £10,000 fine for using his whip three times over the limit of six on the winner, Hukum, in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday.
“I’m extremely disappointed,” Crowley said after finishing third on his final ride on the card. “But I can’t change it, I’ve got to get on with it. I thought it was a brilliant race, I used my whip in a very correct manner, how I’ve been brought up to use it, giving time to respond.
“It’s not something I was aware that I’d done and neither was Rob [Hornby, who was found to have committed a less serious breach of the rules on Westover, the runner-up].
“It’s very difficult to count [strokes] in that scenario, you’re concentrating on everything else but the numbers in your head. Rules are rules but it’s very severe.”
A spokesperson for the BHA said “the use of the whip in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes was not reflective of the riding we have generally seen in major races since the introduction of the new rules [earlier this year].
“On Saturday the whip was used three times above the permitted level on the winner, for which there is very little justification. It is to deter whip use like this that strict penalties are in place, especially in major races. They are designed not only to safeguard the perception of the sport, but also maintain fairness in close finishes, encouraging riders to stay within the rules, in the interest of the betting public and fellow riders.”
Amleto ignore claims impossible to
There is plenty of rain in the forecast ahead of the second afternoon at Glorious Goodwood on Wednesday but that is unlikely to be an issue for Amleto (1.50) when William Haggas’s three-year-old makes his handicap debut in the competitive 12-furlong handicap which opens the card.
Several recent winners of this race have gone on to run well in Group company, including Sir Ron Priestley, successful four years ago, who finished second in the St Leger just six weeks later.
The Classic route is closed to Amleto as he was gelded after his juvenile season, but an opening mark of 89 could seriously underestimate the son of Sea The Stars, who is a full brother to Haggas’s outstanding middle-distance filly, Sea Of Class.
He lost his maiden tag at the third attempt in a heavy-ground maiden at Chester’s May meeting, a 10-furlong event which was run in a useful time in the conditions, and looked sure to improve for the step up to 12 furlongs on Wednesday. That was also Amleto’s first race on turf and even at relatively short odds for a Goodwood handicap, his claim is impossible to ignore.
Goodwood 2.25Breege showed improvement to finish just a length behind the winner off a mark of 100 in the Sandringham at Royal Ascot after two runs in Group One company. She also has form on soft going and does not have much to find to get a first Pattern-race victory in the book.
Goodwood 3.00 Easy going is an unknown for the two market leaders, Big Evs and Kylian, who both arrive on the back of a Listed-race success. Mick Appleby’s colt, a three-length winner of the Windsor Castle at the royal meeting last time, may have more scope for improvement with just two runs in the book and makes slightly more appeal at early odds of around 9-4.
Goodwood 3.35 Aidan O’Brien’s Paddington continued his relentless progress through his three-year-old season with a comfortable defeat of Emily Upjohn in the Eclipse Stakes earlier this month and will be a short price to extend his current winning streak to seven. He is thriving on racing in the manner of O’Brien’s colt Giant’s Causeway at the turn of the century and is poised to complete the same midsummer treble of the St James’s Palace, Eclipse and Sussex Stakes, and only Inspiral, second home on her seasonal debut in the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, looks capable of offering much resistance.