Distant Memories takes Winter Hill Stakes
Tactical plans can be either a masterstroke of genius or a one-way ticket to the ire of a crowd, but the feature races on Windsor’s evening card were won with a simple method that avoided the madness.
Get to the front and stay there, although that is easier said than done and requires a horse who is prepared to push when the rest of the field is trying to pull them in. And that is precisely what Distant Memories did Jamie Spencer in the Group Three totesport.com Winter Hill Stakes.
The gelding’s trainer, Tom Tate, had not had a runner at Windsor for the last five years but Spencer knows his way round the figure-of-eight track as well as anyone and, having controlled the race from the front, Spencer had kept enough in reserve to fend off the challenges of Hot Prospect and Flying Cloud by a half-length and the same.
“He’s a tough and tenacious horse,” Spencer said. “I’ve always liked him and he’s come up through the handicaps, which is solid form. And I’m really happy for the horse because he had a bit of a lull last time at Haydock, but it was just very deep ground, and he was never able to travel. But tonight he was always going smooth in front and he dug deep when it mattered. He’s got a certain amount of ability but a massive heart to go with it.”
Frankie Dettori arrived at the track on a high, having ridden the winner of the big race at Goodwood’s afternoon fixture, but had to settle for third place on Flying Cloud and also finished third behind what was expected to be Saeed bin Suroor’s second string, Whispering Gallery, in the Listed totepool August Stakes.
Whispering Gallery is happiest leading on the gallops at Newmarket and Ted Durcan had the gelding in front from the gates, slowed the pace enough at halfway to have the field stacked up behind him. Then, when the tempo quickened in the home straight, Whispering Gallery fought off first Bullet Train and then Traffic Guard to win by one-and-a-quarter lengths. “He has improved from the last race, when he ran one month ago,” Bin Suroor said.
“He improved physically and mentally he was much better. And the last piece of work, he worked really very well. To compare to his condition in the past he looked much better.
“When he worked in the morning he likes to be in front and that’s what he did in the race. Her was happy all the way and he handled the ground very well.”
It had been something of an up-and-down day for Richard Hannon and Richard Hughes, who missed the ride on Soul City in the August Stakes having been delayed travelling to the course.
Earlier most of the attention had been centred on Hannon’s Date With Destiny, the only progeny of George Washington to see the racecourse, when she ran in the Group Three Chichester Observer Prestige Stakes at Goodwood. However, she clearly did not handle the soft ground as she finished sixth to Thyskens' Theory.
There were similar fears expressed for Hannon’s Zebedee, like Date With Destiny owned by Julie Wood, when he ran 15 minutes later in the Tattersalls Millions Auction Stakes. Zebedee had looked the genuine article when he won the Molecomb Stakes, over five furlongs at Glorius Goodwood, but there were doubts over whether his talent was stretch an extra furlong. It did, helped by an ice-cool ride from Richard Hughes who took the lead in the shadow of the winning post to beat Button Moon by a head.
Hannon’s two-year-olds, so rampant a few weeks ago, have suffered a couple of high-profile reverses with defeats Strong Suit and Libranno in recent weeks but he goes to the Curragh today with high hopes for Memory, who puts her unbeaten record to the test in the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes. “Richard’s rode her out every day this last week and he’s very happy with her. There’s definitely two or three in that race that are going to be hard to beat but, on her form, she’s a very good filly. She’s different, let’s put it that way.”
If she is as good as Hannon believes, tactics may be an irrelevance.
http://www.senore.com/Afleet-Express-wins-the-Travers-Stakes-a24182
http://www.senore.com/Celebration-time-at-Goodwood-for-Frankie-Dettori-and-Poets-Voice-a24158
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