Approve hits top speed in Norfolk Stakes
Long-term thinking over short-term gains was rewarded for trainer William Haggas when Approve flew home to win the Group Two Norfolk Stakes.
Reckless Reward and Black Moth took the field to the two-furlong pole, yielding to Stone Of Folca, but Eddie Ahern was waiting for his moment on Approve who led with a half a furlong to run, and came Approve of Reckless Reward, who rallied late on, by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
The third horse, Excel Bolt, was kept firmly to the stands’ rail by Tom Eaves while the rest of the field galloped down the middle of the track. He was only beaten one-and-three-quarter lengths in total to give an early indication that there might not be so much of a draw bias as was thought the previous day. Dinkum Diamond, the favourite, was kept off the pace in the early stages but could never really get involved in the battle for the lead and finished sixth.
Approve had finished only fourth in the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom two weeks ago but Haggas took the blame for the tactics he elected for Ahern to use. “He was drawn on the outside and he had to drop him in because I didn’t want him to race around the outside and learn nothing. And, by having to drop in, I think that cost him the race. He was always finishing well and, although we weren’t in the first three, we weren’t disappointed really.”
However, Haggas admitted to having second thoughts about whether Approve was truly ready for the step up in class for this race. “I was cursing myself this morning – I thought we should have run in the Windsor Castle. And that was my fault but, fortunately, we’ve been alright today.”
Asked about plans for the colt - another high-profile winner for the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, running for the Bahram Syndicate, Haggas joked: “a large glass of champagne.”
It has been 13 years since Luca Cumani last toasted a Royal Ascot winner and four years since Kieren Fallon won there, but the pair won Hampton Court Stakes after Afsare got the better Quadrille in a photo-finish and then survived a stewards’ inquiry.
There was just a short-head separating the winner and the Queen’s Quadrille at the finish. The stewards looked into possible interference between the first two horses and although Afsare kept the race, the stewards decided that Fallon had failed to correct Afsare drifting into Quadrille and causing interference. The jockey was handed a two-day ban on July 1st and 2nd.
Cumani admitted that he had not been sure that his long wait for another winner at the meeting – since Zaralaska won the won the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes in 1997 – had actually ended. “It wasn’t until on the line that we knew we had it - I had an inkling when they flashed passed the post that he was ahead and then the replay confirmed that. We then had to survive the stewards’ enquiry but all’s well that ends well.
“It’s been too long since I have had a winner here and these things happen. We probably didn’t have the right horses at the right time or we have made a mess of it.
“Afsare is a progressive horse. I need to see the race again, but I think he might improve for stepping up to a mile-and-a-half. While I think he might get a mile-and-a-half, he’s not a Leger horse - he has too much speed. We could maybe look at York now.”
*Chris Stickels, Ascot’s clerk of the course, will water the course agian over night. “We will water the course after racing," he said. “For the second evening in succession, we will apply six millimetres of water to the straight and four millimetres to the round course.”
The going remains good to firm, good in places.
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http://www.senore.com/Ransom-Note-rules-in-Britannia-Stakes-a12879
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