Klammer pays compliment to Frankel at Newbury
Frankel may not have impressed the official handicapper when he won the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket last week, but Klammer did his bit to push the argument.
Klammer had been beaten 10 lengths by Frankel, in the Group Two Royal Lodge Stakes at Ascot last month, and he franked the form with a narrow victory in the Group Three John Smith's Horris Hill Stakes at Newbury. There was no shortage of horses who like to run with the pace so Jamie Spencer held Klammer up for a late surge.
Elzaam, who travelled well in first-time blinkers, led as Spencer slotted Klammer in last place. As Dux Scholar made his run down the stands’ side of the field, Spencer switched Klammer from that side for a diagonal run which brought him to the far side as he attacked in the final hundred yard to beat Dux Scholar by a nose with until the final hundred yards, with Elzaam a neck away in third.
Winning trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam said: “He’s off to Hong Kong now so it’s great to go out on a winning note. Going through the form of the race there were just so many horses with speed, and Jamie’s brilliant at bringing them from off the pace so we just went with that tactic.
“He has hung in his race, he hasn’t any problems it’s just a tendency with him, and he won on that [far] side with his maiden tag here a couple of months ago. And he’s come up the same strip. I don’t normally scream but I did today.”
Richard Hughes, back from his seven-day ban, had probably been screaming a few times as he has sat on the sidelines while Paul Hanagan has pulled further clear in the race for the jockeys’ championship. However, he was at his patient best with Clowance in the Group Three John Smith's St Simon Stakes. Clowance’s trainer, Roger Charlton, had to be even more patient with a mare who had run just once in the previous 12 months. Charltonhad assured the jockey that she would be fit enough on the day, despite the testing ground, and he was as good as his word.
Whispering Gallery and Poet had ensured a gallop that would make this a genuine stamina test in the conditions. Hughes had tucked Clowance behind horses halfway down the home straight but then extracted himself to collar Poet and win by two lengths.
“She got into a nice rhythm today,” Hughes said. She was a little bit fresh early but she was always going to win from halfway up the straight. She travels lovely and you wouldn’t notice that the ground was soft. And Roger said ‘whatever you do just don’t go too soon’ but, at the same time, you can’t sit too long on that ground. Roger said ‘I’ll have her fit’ and when I hear that from Roger I know they’re fit.”
Despite being one of the veterans of the weighing room, Philip Robinson is still plenty fit enough for the job, not that he was pushed to the limits on Zoowraa in the Listed John Moore and Biddestone Stud Memorial Radley Stakes.
The Michael Jarvis-trained filly, who won her maiden at Doncaster three weeks ago, looked the part as she won by three-and-a-quarter lengths. “Today was to find out a bit more against better-class opposition,” Robinson said.
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