Glorious Goodwood

racing news/

Olympic Glory Flies Home in Vintage Stakes
01/08/12

1 Olympic Glory 11/4
2 Artigiano 7/1
3 Luhaif 80/1
10 ran Distances: ½l, hd, hd
TIME 1m 27.70s (slow by 3.40s)

Olympic Glory was produced with a withering late run to give Richard Hannon a third successive triumph in the Veuve Clicquot Vintage Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.

Olympic Glory
© Racehorse Photos

Hannon had saddled King Torus and Chandlery to win the last two runnings of the Group Two juvenile prize and Olympic Glory was 11-4 to follow up his victory in last month's Superlative Stakes at Newmarket.

As the rest of the field went for home, Richard Hughes seemed keen to play his cards late on the eventual winner. He was still last of all with a couple of furlongs to run but the jockey timed his run to perfection, getting up by half a length to beat Artigiano.

Hughes said: "The horse got me out of trouble, he just wasn't turning around the bend, he was hanging badly left and I didn't think he was going to turn. They got racing really early so I let him find his feet and he actually started running straight with me rather than trying to hold him in and then he took off.

"I thought at the two I'd get there but then Paul (Hanagan) switched his (Ghurair) and that just stopped my run but then he was always going to get there. He's a good horse to win this with a penalty."

Hannon said: "That's not good for your heart! Richard said he didn't turn very well and he had to get him balanced. Once he got him balanced, he flew.

"Probably on a different track the margin might have been different. He got in all sorts of trouble. We'll see how he comes out of the race. He could go for the Champagne Stakes and the Dewhurst."

Winning owner Julie Wood said: "It was another dry mouth moment and I thought he'd got boxed in in the last furlong or so, but he flew and I knew we'd got it because we were standing on the winning line.

"Obviously he gets seven furlongs well and you'd have to look towards races like the Dewhurst and consider the other races on the way there. It's lovely as we won the race last year with Chandlery and it's special just to have had another runner."

Veuve Clicquot Vintage Stakes
£60,000 added, 2yo only, 7f, Class 1
10 ran
Going: Good