No Delay in Postponed’s Return To Winning Ways and Martin Magic in Ebor
Last week saw another fabulous four days of racing take place at York as the track played host to its annual Ebor meeting. There were as ever thrills and spills aplenty and here we take a look back at the best of the action.
The feature event on the opening day was one of the top mile and a quarter contests of the season as the valuable Juddmonte International took centre stage. This year’s edition looked well up to scratch beforehand, with three of the first four home from the King George, and the winner of the Coral Eclipse in the field.
Postponed Supreme
The runner to garner the most attention though was the Roger Varian trained Postponed. Unbeaten since joining the Varian operation in September 2015, the son of Dubawi was forced to miss his King George engagement due to a respiratory infection, which led to a slight question mark as to his current wellbeing on his return to the track here.
Highland Reel and Sir Isaac Newton upheld the King George from well but neither could live with Postponed in the end as the five year old put to bed any doubts regarding his health with another dominant display. It appears to be full steam ahead for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for the winner now. That is shaping up into a vintage renewal this year at Chantilly, with the likes of Harzand, Minding and Order Of St George all possible runners, but it is Postponed who currently heads the betting at 7/2.
Thursday’s Lowther Stakes saw a field of the most promising juvenile fillies in training line up to do battle over 6f of the Knavesmire. Fair Eva had looked to be one of the most talented of Frankel’s offspring to take to the track to date, rocketing to the head of the 1000 Guineas market and being sent off as a prohibitive 4/11 favourite here. In the end though the Roger Charlton runner could manage only third, running as though a step up in trip may well be in order.
Fair Eva may have been eclipsed but Frankel still made it into the winners enclosure, as his slightly less heralded daughter Queen Kindly landed the prize for Richard Fahey. This perhaps shouldn’t have come as a shock in hindsight as this speedy sort had won two of her previous three starts in good style, and her dam Lady Of The Desert won this very race back in 2009. The Cheveley Park Stakes and a possible clash with the US speedball Lady Aurelia, who landed the Prix Morny at Deauville on Sunday, looks to be her next assignment.
Angelic Nunthorpe Victory
Friday’s Nunthorpe Stakes is one of the standout 5f contests of the season and this year featured a truly outstanding performance from the winner. Michael Dods’s Meccas Angel came into the race as defending champion having resoundingly beaten the star two year old Acapulco here in 2015. In pulling right away from July Cup hero Limato, King George V Stakes winner Take Cover, and the rest, she was if anything even more impressive this year.
If she can repeat this effort she may well take some stopping in the Prix de l’Abbaye at Chantilly, a race for which she is now the 6/4 favourite, after which she looks set to be retired to the breeding ranks.
Saturday saw the handicap eponymous with the title of this meeting take place with the latest edition of the hugely competitive Betfred Ebor handicap. In the end this turned into something of the Tony Martin show as the Irish trainer saddled both the first and third home. Heartbreak City arrived into the race on the back of two wins over two miles and so was always likely to be difficult to stop if making it to the front.
So it proved as the Adam McNamara ridden six year old pulled right away for a career best effort with Shrewd running on well for second and the winner’s stablemate Quick Jack filling third spot. The race also served as a fine advertisement as to the value of a good claiming jockey, as the first three home were all ridden by apprentices.
