Ihtimal produced a fine turn of foot to record a two-length victory in the
Group 2 May Hill Stakes at Doncaster Friday afternoon.
The 11-10 favorite burst clear of the field in the final furlong and her six
rivals had no answer to her finishing kick as she powered clear of Majeyda to
give Godolphin a one-two in the race. The two-year-old is bred in the purple and
her granddam was a half-sister to Godolphin’s Epsom Oaks and Irish Derby winner
Balanchine.
“She’s certainly got an engine and showed a very smart turn of foot to win,”
Godolphin’s racing manager Simon Crisford said. “We weren’t sure whether she’d
act on this ground and we only decided to run her after seeing the first race
today. Normally horses can’t accelerate like that on slow ground which suggests
the going may not be as bad as we first thought. She’s got the mile well and
there will be no problem with her getting a mile and a quarter next season and
beyond.
“She can’t be described in the same breath as Balanchine yet though. She was
a top-class filly and while this one is useful at the moment, she’s got a fair
way to go before she matches her. We’ll head to the Fillies’ Mile (at Newmarket)
with her now and she’ll be given a Guineas preparation.”
Jockey Silvestre de Sousa was also impressed with the two-year-old.
“She was traveling well throughout the race and I was quite happy with my
position,” de Sousa said. “I was traveling so well that, if the gap hadn’t come,
she would have opened her own gap. She’s not very big but she has got the job
done. I never touched her and she has done it with her own ability. I think that
she will strengthen up through the winter and she has a bright future.”
Trainer Saeed bin Suroor was looking forward to the future with the daughter
of Street Cry.
“We talked before the race and wanted to keep her nice and relaxed throughout
the race. She showed some class when she won her Group 3 (Sweet Solera) at
Newmarket and we weren’t really sure about the ground today but she handled it
well.
“For the future, we are looking at the Fillies’ Mile for her now. We will
talk with Sheikh Mohammed and decide. She is an easy filly to train. She shows a
turn of foot in the mornings and she is nice and tough. She tries very hard and
she will be good in the future. She is a small filly but she has an engine and,
with her class, I think that she will be fine next year. Silvestre (de Sousa)
works very hard. He rides the horses every morning and knows them really well.
You need the jockey to know the horses and he loves the job. I always like to
see him ride close up in the race, in second or third.”
This was a fourth consecutive victory in the race for Godolphin after Certify
(2012), Lyric Of Light (2011) and White Moonstone (2010).
Crisford was also pleased with the performance of the runner-up, who could
also head to Newmarket.
“She’s run up to her best, we’re very pleased with her but she’s been beaten
by the better filly on the day. However, we might look at the Fillies’ Mile for
her as well.”
In winning back-to-back editions of the Group 2 Doncaster Cup, Times Up
provided an emotional victory Friday for his trainer Ed Dunlop. Twelve months
previously the gelding had given Dunlop’s father John his last prestige victory
before his retirement.
“I’ve won bigger races, but few that have meant more,” Dunlop said. “I didn’t
do too well with the horse early on and I could see the headlines — ‘Powerful
famous father retires, son inherits, does bad job.'”
“So there was a bit of pressure. The horse had been going really well in the
spring — he had been working really well with my good mile and a half horses —
but then he got a bad infection. When I ran him in the Gold Cup he pulled too
hard but ran much better at York.”
It was with his third in the Lonsdale Stakes on the Knavesmire that Times Up
began to show his true colors.
“That was when his season really began,” Dunlop added. “I’m so glad that he
has done this today, chuffed for the horse and his owners and chuffed for my
father, who I hope was watching.”
Times Up, at 3-1, beat last year’s runner-up High Jinx, the 2-1 favorite, by
1 1/4 lengths with Repeater a half-length farther behind in third.
“It was a bit of a messy race, a bit stop-start,” jockey Ryan Moore said.
“But I got a good tow behind High Jinx, and then when the gray horse (Colour
Vision) started to block me out I had to let him go on. It was maybe a bit soon
but he had enough in reserve.”
Times Up, who will stay in training next year, may go to Ascot next month for
the British Champions Long Distance Cup.
“We might have aimed at the Melbourne Cup, but the trainer did such a bad job
early that he missed getting in,” Dunlop said.
Times Up became only the 10th horse to win more than one Doncaster Cup. The
exceptional northern heroine Beeswing took four, in 1837 and 1840-42; Double
Trigger three in 1995, 1996 and 1998. The other dual winners have been
Touchstone (1835-36), Alice Hawthorne (1843-44), Vedette (1857-58), Velocity
(1906-07), Agreement (1958-59), Le Moss (1979-80) and Millenary, who dead-heated
with Kasthari in 2004 and took the prize outright a year later.
Green Door gave his trainer Olly Stevens the first Group winner of his
fledgling career as he took the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths
from Wind Fire. And for good measure the winner’s stablemate Extortionist took
third prize. There had been some slight doubts beforehand as to whether either
colt would run in the five-furlong dash.
“With the forecast for rain overnight, we were wondering,” said Stevens’ wife
Hetta. “We thought we might take a chance with Green Door, but that Extortionist
would not run. But when we walked the track it was fine, and I have to say the
clerk of the course has done a great job, you’d hardly know they’d been racing
on it for two days.”
Green Door stepped up on his previous level of form, his two previous
victories having come in his maiden and a novice event.
“This was the first time he’d been held up,” rider Jim Crowley said. “He’d
always blazed off before but this time the plan was to anchor him, and it
worked. I got a lovely tow through and he won it like a nice horse.”
The son of Camacho, a £19,000 yearling, is owned by a partnership that
includes Sheikh Fahad al Thani and his racing advisor David Redvers, and Michael
Watt.
“He (the sheikh) has supported us in our first season and it’s absolutely
great to be able to reward him with a race like this,” added Hetta, whose
husband is at the Keeneland sales.
No future plans have yet been plotted for Green Door, but Extortionist may go
for the Cornwallis Stakes at Ascot.
“I liked the way Green Door settled and then battled at the end,” Hetta
added. “This horse has been hugely special to us. He has lost his way a little
bit but he has come back and done it very nicely today. He was given a brilliant
ride by Jim, who rode him to perfect instructions.
“He came back from York and he was asleep flat out in his stable for two
days, which was highly unlike him. Then he came back bouncing — he started to
eat up and was feeling much better — and he has been training the best he has
been all year. We had to take a shot with him today. Olly is away in Kentucky
with David and Sheikh Fahad at the moment. I hope that they are jumping up and
down!”
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