Vision.ae Middle Park Stakes |
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| Group 1, Newmarket 14:55 £217,500 added, 2yo only, 6f, Class 1 |
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| Friday 17th October 2014 | |
1 Charming Thought 22/1
2 Ivawood 1/2F
3 Muhaarar 8/1
NR: Jungle Cat (IRE)
6 ran Distances: nse, 1¼l, ½l
TIME 1m 13.01s (slow by 2.91s)
Charming Thought wins the Middle Park Stakes, beating Ivawood on the line
Richard Hannon: "I loved the way Ivawood travelled. He's still a very good horse and hopefully will come back in May and win the Guineas."
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Ivawood's unbeaten record came to an abrupt end as Charming Thought claimed victory in a thrilling renewal of the vision.ae Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket.
Richard Hannon's colt was all the rage to make it four from four on his Group One debut and the 1-2 favourite moved sweetly for much of the six-furlong contest, but Richard Hughes had to get serious with his mount when he hit the rising ground and Charlie Appleby's Godolphin runner emerged as a serious threat.
The two fought to the line tooth and nail and it was 22-1 shot Charming Thought who passed the post a nose ahead in the hands of William Buick, providing the Godolphin team with its first Group One victory of the domestic season.
Buick said: "All along I was sure I'd won. There were two great horses battling out the finish. This horse has done nothing but improve. It's a great training performance by Charlie. There's plenty to look forward to next year."
Appleby added: "It's great to get my first Group One in England out of the way. It was the last roll of the dice for us from Moulton Paddocks.
"He's a horse we've held in high regard from the spring onwards. He just met with a setback in the spring, so we had to be patient with him and it's prevailed now. It was a bold decision by his Highness (Sheikh Mohammed) to supplement him on Saturday.
"He's progressed through the year and we're delighted with the outcome. William said on better ground you'll see a better horse and he'll probably stay a mile.
"He settled very nicely throughout the race and it paid dividends when he hit the rising ground. It was a very pleasing effort. We'll put him away now. That was always the plan. We felt we had a decent horse today but if he didn't handle the ground there's always next year."
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"I loved the way Ivawood travelled. He didn't accelerate like he normally does, probably because of the ground more than anything else. He's still a very good horse and hopefully he'll come back in May and win the Guineas.
"Our plan doesn't change. He's a big horse and we thought he'd be a horse for next year and we deliberately didn't give him too much this year. It's disappointing he didn't win, but it is by no means game over."
Vision.ae Middle Park Stakes (Group 1)
£217,500 added, 2yo only, 6f, Class 1
6 ran
Going: Soft
| Pos | Dr | Dist | Horse SP Jockey | Wgt | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | (2) | Charming Thought 22/1 William Buick |
9-0 | C Appleby | |
| 2nd | (1) | nse | Ivawood (IRE) 1/2F R Hughes |
9-0 | Richard Hannon |
| 3rd | (5) | 1¼ | Muhaarar 8/1 P Hanagan |
9-0 | C Hills |
| 4th | (4) | ½ | Cappella Sansevero 6/1 Andrea Atzeni |
9-0 | G M Lyons |
| 5th | (3) | 1 | Kool Kompany (IRE) 9/1 R L Moore |
9-0 | Richard Hannon |
| 6th | (6) | ½ | The Warrior (IRE) 40/1 J P O'Brien |
9-0 | A P O'Brien |
| NR | (7) | Jungle Cat (IRE) J Fanning |
9-0 | M Johnston |
