d**k Turpin steals Greenham Stakes for Richard Hannon
Some trainers believe in heading straight for the early-season Classics but Richard Hannon usually prefers to take a detour to one of the trial races.
He did that at Newbury with mixed results in the Group Three Bathwick Tyres Greenham Stakes. The race was supposed to be a re-match between the favourite, the Hannon-trained Canford Cliffs, and Arcano, who had beaten Canford Cliff’s in the Prix Morny last season.
Trial races can often be run at a false tempo but Richard Hughes was not going to die wondering. He had Canford Cliffs in the lead from the stalls, tracked by stable companion d**k Turpin and Arcano. When Hughes started to ask Canford Cliffs to quicken approaching the two-furlong marker the response was immediate but not straightforward as the colt drifted left from the centre of the course to the far rail.
He did not lose much ground but it was enough for d**k Turpin, ridden by Ryan Moore, to steal a late-run win by a half-length with Arcano another seven lengths back in third. Hannon came to the course with one Guineas contender and left with two so he was happy enough with his day’s work. “I think if Canford Cliffs hadn’t run off a line he’d have probably won but I’m very pleased with both of them really,” he said. “It’s nice to be where we are. We’re seven lengths in front of the third and it’s a h**l of a time. We’ve got the winner in the Irish [Guineas] and we’ve also got him in the French. I’d quite like to separate them.
“Canford drifted off a line there but he won’t do that at Newmarket. We’ll have him ridden a little bit different there but, what I didn’t want to do, was to see this race turn into a monkey race today. So I said to them both ‘let them roll’. We’ve got to find something out and I think we have and they’re both two very good horses.”
d**k Turpin made far more of a ripple on the waters of the 2000 Guineas market than Puff managed for the fillies’ equivalent when she blew past more fancied rivals to win the Group Three Dubai Duty Free Fred Darling Stakes for Ralph Beckett.
Puff had finished fourth in last season’s Cheveley Park Stakes and was not expected to turn the form around with Misheer and Lady Of The Desert, the favourite. The script appeared to be running to plan when Lady Of The Desert swept past Misheer with about a furlong to run. Kieren Fallon, who was back in the saddle less than 24 hours after leaving Newbury on a stretcher after being kicked by a horse, had allowed Lady Of The Desert to stretch clear but her speed in taking the lead was not matched by her stamina to maintain that advantage as Puff wore her down and then held off Habaayib to win by a neck.
Puff will be running in the Guineas but Brian Meehan, trainer of Lady Of The Desert, was revising his plans. “She definitely got tired,” he said. “She blew up and had strong blow when she came back in. I thought it was a very rough race – Kieren said he could never do anything he wanted to do in the race at any stage. He said she’ll definitely get the mile, no problem. I think we’ll head to the French Guineas, but we’ll discuss it with the owner.”
For Fallon it was a rare reverse in a week when the gods were smiling on him, not least after his near-miss in that paddock incident yesterday. “Luckily it just got me on the thigh and I’ve got a lot of muscle there,” he said. “So it saved the bone – and thank God I’m here. I thought the bone was broken but it was just the blast and I’d say it was the shock more so than anything else. It’s fine today and I’m feeling no pain.”
Any pain at the defeat of Lady Of The Desert was soothed somewhat by the victory of Music Show, who is in the same ownership, after he victory in the Nell Gwyn Stakes at Newmarket in mid-week when she had to come from the back of her field to win after not getting a clear run on the rail. “I was at the back of the field, I had to switch wide to the outside – which means that you lose a lot of ground,” Fallon explianed. “When I asked her quicken, it was immediate. She’s quickened by the field and I don’t know if she’s just got tired or whether she’s idled in front. She can tend to idle but I’d say it’s a bit of both. But I was impressed with the way she picked and I didn’t think it was a bad field either.”
Fallon may yet elect to ride Seta, for Luca Cumani, in the Guineas but things are looking rather good for him at present.
Sir Michael Stoute may not have written the book How to train older horses but he probably contributed a few of the best chapters. His mastery of the late-maturing horse is evidenced by his 23% strike-rate in Group races with his senior division and was underlined once more by the victory of Harbinger in the Group Three Dubai Duty Free John Porter Stakes.
Ryan Moore kept Harbinger at the rear of the field turning into the straight but, once he was switched to the centre of the track, the four-year-old made up the deficit on the leaders with a relentless stride that took him three lengths clear of Manifest.
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