Hooray gets the call in Cheveley Park Stakes
Sir Mark Prescott seemed to be unsure whether Hooray would act in the rain-softened ground in the Group One Adnams Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket.
But from a furlong out she was a certainty – no shouting needed – as she routed her field in impressive style. The filly had been a revelation when she won the Lowther Stakes at York in August, when the change to front-running tactics had brought vast improvement.
However, both Prescott and jockey Seb Sanders had expressed doubts over whether she could maintain that level of performance on soft ground. Undeterred Sanders still bounced Hooray from the gates and she was never seriously challenged as she drew four-and-a-half lengths clear of Rimth, with Maqaasid in third. “Even though she was mine, I thought she was very impressive,” Prescott said. “At the top of the hill you had that lovely thing of looking to see if anything was going well behind us. It’s a rare thing in a Group One.”
“When they’re as useful as she is on very hard ground, the unknown factor is when it starts to rain,” Prescott explained. “So, obviously I was very worried about her because I thought, if it stayed firm, she was probably the best in the field,” adding with typical self-deprecation “it looks like the trainer is wrong again.”
Whether or not Prescott is wrong, Hooray – who had been beaten at both Royal Ascot and the July meeting before coming good in the second half of the season – has progressed to become the leading filly in Europe. “She’s kept improving and I think when we stopped restraining her and let her get on with what she wanted to do was the making of her,” he said.
The question now is whether she can make up into a 1000 Guineas contender but Prescott is not convinced. “I wouldn’t think she’d stay,” he said. “I’ve been wrong and I hope I keep on being wrong. I wouldn’t think she would stay – she’s got bags of speed and she’d have a job to keep that up for a mile.”
"The owners would probably love to have a go at the 1000 Guineas if she does well through the winter but we have always regarded her as a two-year-old."
Havant may have been slow to start but she was quick enough to finish as she won the Group Three Sakhee Oh So Sharp Stakes. Noticeably slowly away from the stalls, Ryan Moore did not panic and was helped by the steady pace that was increased only when Sister Red took it up in the second furlong.
Johnny Murtagh was looking for a way through the field on the well-backed Look At Me running into the Dip. But by then Havant was clear and not for catching as she came away by three-and-a-quarter lengths. Havant was Sir Michael Stoute’s sixth winner in the 23-year history of the race but no filly has gone on to win the Guineas and given her breeding – by Halling out of the El Gran Senor mare Louella – the Oaks may be a more likely proposition.
Either way Stoute was happy enough with progress thus far. “From the time she went into string work she’s done everything well and exhibited good ability,” he said. “She won her maiden very comfortably on the July course. And today she walked out of the stalls – she’s very relaxed and laid-back – she just slumped out of the stalls. They didn’t go much of a pace – she was soon up there with them – was always travelling and she was winning from a long way out.”
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