Canford Cliffs storms home in St James’s Palace Stakes
Canford Cliffs confirmed the belief of trainer Richard Hannon with a scintillating victory in the Group One St James’s Palace Stakes.
Hannon had never lost his faith in the colt, despite a run of three successive defeats following his six-length victory at this meeting last year in the Coventry Stakes.
Canford Cliffs had repaid that faith by winning the Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh last month and can now be regarded as the best of his generation over a mile after he beat d**k Turpin by one length. Richard Hughes was at his coolest as he was fully seven lengths off the pace off the home turn to power past stable companion d**k Turpin in the last hundred yards.
The race did not go according to plan for Aidan O’Brien. He had three runners in the race, with Encompassing expected to be setting the pace for Steinbeck, the mount of Johhny Murtagh, and Beethoven.
However, Encompassing never got away from the stalls quickly enough to assert and Murtagh was left to take matters into his own hands. He was leading from early on and still in front in the home straight, with Ryan Moore upside him on d**k Turpin.
Hughes had plenty of horses in front of him on the home turn. But he also had plenty of horse underneath him. d**k Turpin won his battle with Steinbeck at the furlong pole but had no answer when Canford Cliffs came though the field to collar him in the manner of a class horse to win by a length, with Hearts Of Fire coming on the scene late to claim third.
Which is exactly what Hannon had been saying for a year, despite those defeats between the victories in the Coventry and Irish Guineas. “Hughsie rode him to work one morning as a two-year-old and said ‘this is very good’ – and he’s got better, and better and better,” Hannon said. “All he needed to do was settle in his races. There was no doubt that he was going to get a mile and he’s a horse for the future too. It is one thing to win the Coventry Stakes with him last year but to come on and win this year is something else.”
At some point d**k Turpin deserves a Group One victory having finished runner-up in both the 2000 Guineas and the French equivalent before this sterling performance. “He just keeps bumping into one. The thing he bumped into in France [Lope De Vega] went on and won the French Derby three-and-a-half lengths. He’s just a bit of a bridesmaid – but I’m very lucky to have two very good horses.”
Hughes had the choice of rides but was never going to switch from the winner. “The most important thing I had to do was to get my horse to settle very early in the race – spit the bridle out and ride my race. I said all week I knew I was on the best horse but I just needed a bit of luck in running.
“There was loads of room up the inner but I can afford to give them five lengths when you’re riding a horse like Canford Cliffs. I’d just seen his shoe go turning for home. That was a bit of a worry and he might have hit a flat spot just when I arrived behind them. But, once I gave him a belt, he took off again. I was passing a very good horse in d**k Turpin too.”
Noble’s Promise, the American runner trained by Kenny McPeek, posted a decent performance to finish fifth, beaten three lengths, ridden by Kieren Fallon. “He ran a respectable race and was only beaten two or two and a half lengths in total but he really did look like he was a little unlucky,” McPeek said. “Kieren said he felt like Noble’s Promise was a little confused on the right-hand turn - we’ve been working on that but it looked like he had a few jumps where he was thinking of going the other way and he kind of lost his spot. If things had gone our way a bit more, perhaps things would be different but that’s horse racing.”
The big disappointment of the race was Makfi, the winner of the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket last month. He was never a factor in the latter part of the race and finished seventh. His jockey, Olivier Peslier, said: “He was running a good race until turning into the straight. I tried to go on the outside but there was no power there - he found nothing.”
*Two jockeys were banned for their riding in the St James's Palace Stakes. Jimmy Fortune, who partnered third Hearts Of Fire, was found to have interfered with Steinbeck, eighth home, inside the final furlong. He was judged guilty of careless riding in that he went across to the rail when insufficiently clear. The stewards suspended Fortune for three days - June 29th, 30th & July 1st.
The stewards decided that Fallon, rider of Noble's Promise, who finished fifth, interfered with seventh Makfi by hanging left inside the final furlong. They suspended him for one day, June 29th.
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