Henry Cecil has manifest reasons for hope
The last time Henry Cecil trained the winner of the Yorkshire Cup it was 1987. That year he would also win the Derby, the Gold Cup and finish the season as champion trainer.
Then three Group-race winners in a week was the staple diet but, following a period when he was existing on much thinner rations, Cecil will have viewed the victory of Manifest in the Group Two Emirates Airline Yorkshire Cup as part of a good few days.
Indeed a high-profile across-the-card treble at York and Newbury in the space of 40 minutes saw Cecil keeping his position in third place in this season’s trainers’ table.
Tom Queally had Manifest on the pace set by Oasis Knight, on whom Jimmy Fortune tried to burn off the pack with an increase in tempo on the home turn. However, Queally never appeared remotely concerned as Manifest took up the lead with three furlongs to run.
Either side of Queally, Frankie Dettori, on Wajir, and Kieren Fallon, riding Purple Moon, were set the task of challenging. It was too much at that point for Purple Moon but Wajir seemed capable of making a race of it until Manifest lengthened from the furlong pole to win by eight lengths from the staying on Purple Moon.
The winner was contesting only the fifth race of his life and his form looks solid enough given the race he ran to finish second to Harbinger in the John Porter Stakes at Newbury last month. He is clearly progressing rapidly and, although stamina has to be taken on trust, Cecil was already thinking of a possible sixth victory in next month’s Gold Cup at Royal Ascot – provided he receives royal approval from owner Prince Khalid Abdullah.
“I love Cup horses and he just could make into a really nice one,” Cecil said. “He did everything right, he’d rather have a little bit more give in the ground. Rainbow Quest [his sire] was by Blushing Groom, Blushing Groom was by Red God, he was by Nasrullah - so I think this is as fast as he’d want. He looks as if he stays and he could stay the Gold Cup. It’s entirely up to the Prince whether he’d like to run him in it or not.”
Queally was only two years old when Cecil last won the Gold Cup, with Paean, but he was clearly hopeful that Manifest was up to the task. “He ran a h**l of a race in the John Porter and Harbinger has come out and franked the form,” the jockey said. “All our horses are improving between five and 7lbs for a run and he’s no exception to the rule. He just takes a little bit of time to come up through the gears. Once he reaches that top gear he’s something to be reckoned with.”
Cecil’s yard is one to be reckoned with and the trainer just had time to watch on television as Principal Role became yet another filly to enter calculations for the Investec Oaks, when she won the Listed Swettenham Stud Fillies' Trial Stakes at Newbury, before saddling Chachamaidee to win a second Listed race of the day, the sportingbet.com Fillies' Stakes.
Throw in Bullet Train, the winner of the Lingfield Derby Trial, who now looks likely to be the Abdullah standard bearer for the Investec Derby and Cecil is back at a level that his legion of admirers had once doubted that they would see him rise to again.
The two York winners were a welcome boost for Queally, back from a three-day suspension for careless riding that had been imposed by the Newmarket stewards when Jacqueline Quest was demoted in the 1000 Guineas earlier this month.
The ban had meant that Queally had had to forego the victory on Aviate – who, along with Timepiece represents the stable’s other Oaks candidates – in the Musidora Stakes on Wednesday.
“She’s a good filly,” he said of Aviate. “And it was great the way she quickened through and won the race. The horses are running well and long may it continue.”
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