3 minute read
It was the Stradivarius of old battling Spanish Mission in the Lonsdale.
The lead changed a couple of times but in the end the 7yo Stradivarius had the experience to give it one more charge and collect the prize. Spanish Mission was not disgraced in second and is now heading to the Melbourne Cup, for which he should be very well suited.
There was only a head in it at the wire and it had been a race reduced to four runners as Trueshan was scratched because of the going.
Stradivarius – what more can one say? He's won four Goodwood Cups, three Gold Cups, three Lonsdales now, two Yorkshire Cups and a Doncaster Cup.
Lusail had a relatively easy win in the Gimcrack finishing 1 ¼ lengths in from of Gis A Sub for the Kevins and Twilight Jet third.
The Nunthorpe went to Winter Power, trained by Tim Easterby for King Power Racing and in the hands of Silvestre de Sousa, with Emiraty Ana second and Dragon Symbol third and French raider Suesa only 4th and the Americana Golden Pal 7th. Our roughie did better than that – Chil Chil – finished 5th and not that far back.
So what did the Romans ever do for us? Well they gave us the name "Ebor" for York and thus the Ebor Handicap, one of those great Heritage Handicaps, has a maximum field of 22 for the 2800m contest. Hamish and Mr Leinster are on 6/1, then the lucky pin landed on Pablo Escobar who ran third in the Geoffrey Freer at Newbury last weekend and he's on 28/1. Global Storm could well get some hard-earned on it at 11/1.
The Strensall G3 starts things moving with the Saeed bin Suroor runner Real World on evens here with Marco Ghiani on board. My Oberon is 4/1 for Haggas-Marquand and El Drama 6/1 with only 7 runners for the 1800m race.
The City of York over 1400m sees another Godolphin runner favourite in Space Blues from the Appleby yard on 6/5 and William Buick on board. He's a course and distance winner too.
Primo Bacio (= First Kiss) is taking on the boys here – not many options for the girls only over this trip – and gets the weight advantage. "Aussie" Tom Marquand will ride for Ed Walker. Glorious Journey is also from the Appleby yard and James Doyle gets the ride.
