Rainbow Peak reaches summit in Wolferton Handicap
One of the heaviest–backed favourites of the week obliged when Rainbow Peak won the Wolferton Handicap.
Indian Days was rushed out the stalls to bag the prime rails position and set a furious pace into the home straight, where he was collared by Kingdom Of Fife but he had no answer to the run of Rainbow Peak who came clear to win by two-and-a-quarter lengths, with Kings Gambit catching Kingdom Of Fife for third by a short-head.
It was very much a pressure ride for Neil Callan who proved once agian that if the horse is good enough, he certainly is.
This was a 15th winner at the royal meeting for Rainbow Peak’s trainer, Michael Jarvis, 41 years after Tudor Music won the Golden Jubilee Stakes in 1969. But Jarvis is a man who prefers to look forward and Rainbow Peak, who has been restricted to just five runs in his career thus far, is a horse with whom the trainer will be looking to move up into Group races now.
“Hopefully there is more to come,” said Jarvis. “He wasn’t born until May 20 and never came into training until quite late, then he had a minor pelvis fracture. So we never got him going until last year and he had a hairline fracture on a tibia and consequently he has had very little racing.
“He has been working like a Group horse and, judging by his price, I think other people knew about him. I think his handicapping days are over and we have taken the precaution of putting him in a Group race abroad. We will be looking for 10 furlong races.
“Neil said that the really strong pace suited him because he does pick up well off a strong pace and it couldn’t have gone better for him. I suggested a mile and a half and Neil said that he is so good over a mile-and-a- quarter that I shouldn’t change things at the moment.”
Callan added: “I went through the race last night, looked at some form and I was pretty happy that I had a good draw. I knew that my horse had pace but he was off the bridle for so long that I knew that they were going a bit quick.
“His work has been very good since his first run this year, which was probably over an inadequate mile. That sharpened him up a little bit and put the edge on him but he just had enough time in between to stay relaxed and come on for that run.
“He was a bit unlucky that day because he didn’t have a good draw and the ground at York was very fast and he had to stick wide and didn’t learn a lot as a result,
“He is winning a handicap off a mark in the 100s now so you would think that he is going to turn into a Group performer. He is still a little bit of a frame of a horse and he has got to fill out a little bit, so he has the scope. He relaxes so well and a mile and a quarter is perfect at the moment, but he looks like he could get a mile and a half next year and be really classy.
“Today was an important day for me because I’ve been looking forward to riding this horse here for a long time.”
Owner-breeder Peter Savill said: “We tend to sell the colts and keep the well-bred fillies but he didn’t reach his reserve and I was delighted to retain him because I’d always loved him.
“I didn’t back him today because I felt he was too short a price and he’s got some good entries. I think we put him in a couple of Group Ones in Germany.
“He could well go right to the top and I think he’ll be a better horse later this year. When Kieren (Fallon) won on at Ascot last season he told us that he just didn’t know how good the horse might be this year.
“He lost his unbeaten record at York last time when the ground was too fast for him, the trip was too short and he had a bad draw. Even with those three things against him he nearly managed to win.
The other handicap on the card, Buckingham Palace Stakes, was a welcome return to the big-time for Jamie Osborne. The trainer already had three Royal Ascot successes on the board previously but none gave him as much joy as Treadwell's.
The three-year-old, part-owned by Cath Walwyn, took the spoils by a half-length from Himalya. Osborne’s previous triumphs came with Irony (2001 Windsor Castle Stakes), Drawnfromthepast (2007 Windsor Castle Stakes) and Enjoy The Moment (2007 Queen Alexandra Stakes).
The ecstatic trainer said: “Realistically, you need a miracle to win here but I felt he was coming here with a chance.
“The camera was following the runners on the near side and I couldn’t see him until about a furlong and a half down and then all of a sudden he appeared.
“At the moment, this means everything. We have had a tough couple of years so it’s nice to have a nice horse in the yard. The world has had problems and I’ve had problems with the world.
“This means more than the previous three Royal Ascot wins because we’ve had a pretty quiet time. The first one came when I had just started training and I thought it was easy. Then the next two came in 2007 and we had a lot of horses at the time, so again I thought it was easy. I’ve been in this game a while and I should have known better.”
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