3 minute read
Karl Burke and Clifford Lee teamed up to land the opening Listed Burradon Stakes courtesy of Cuban Tiger's hard-fought success at Newcastle.
The first race on Newcastle's valuable seven-race All-Weather Finals Day card went the way of Cuban Tiger, who battled on gamely to deny the front-running Sayedaty Sadaty by a neck.
Held up towards the rear under a confident-looking Clifford Lee, Cuban Tiger, who was sent off a well-backed 3/1 chance to claim the opening mile prize, eased his way into contention between rivals approaching the three-furlong marker before showing gritty determination to get on top in the closing stages.
John and Thady Gosden's Orne stayed on nicely once in the clear but the 5/2 market leader could never quite get on terms with the front two, eventually finishing a further three lengths behind back in third.
It was the second success in three career outings for the Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum-owned three-year-old, who backed up a narrow debut victory at Southwell when finishing runner-up to the highly-regarded Notable Speech at Kempton last month.
"I knew we had a horse in Cuban Tiger that was better than his rating of 87, it was just a question of how good we were. He is an honest horse, very kind, and has a great temperament," said Karl Burke.
"He loves that surface; he's a good-moving horse and I don't think he'd want soft ground. He might get more than a mile as he does have stamina on the dam side, but I don't think he really needs to stay more than a mile.
"We knew he'd stay seven furlongs but equally there weren't many seven-furlong races around, which is why we ran him over six to start with. Then I think we were beaten by a really good horse [Notable Speech] of Charlie Appleby's at Kempton – I know William Buick really likes him.
"We will sit and wait now and have a word with his owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid about where we go next. We have a big team of three-year-olds and there is some really nice stuff there. Hopefully, they will all stay in one piece."
