Sole Power hits top speed in Nunthorpe Stakes
Sole Power caused a huge upset when he won the Group One Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes at York.
A drying wind ensured that the ground was riding fast enough to offer conditions where the field might have got close to the blistering 55.16 seconds that Dayjur clocked when he won in 1990. It was also plenty fast enough for Jeremy Noseda to scratch Fleeting Spirit, leaving a field of 12 to burst from the stalls.
When they did it was Rose Blossom who shot out of the gates for Paul Hanagan and the filly was two lengths clear after less than a furlong. Once everyone else had caught their breath she was joined by Piccadilly Filly and it was a measure of the pace that a front-runner like Equiano could not get to the leaders. The pair were flying through the first three furlongs while Starspangledbanner was off the pace, racing on his own towards the stands’ rail and working hard to get into the race for Johnny Murtagh.
But Wayne Lordan was always travelling easily on Sole Power. He was about level with Starspangledbanner about two-and-a-half furlongs out, just about the point where the superiority of Aidan O’Brien’s colt – which he showed when he won the Golden Jubilee Stakes and July Cup – might have been expected to kick in.
However, it was Sole Power who found the power for Lordan as he took it up inside the final furlong, and then had plenty in reserve to hold off the late rally of Starspangledbanner by one-and-a- quarter lengths with Piccadilly Filly the same distance away in third.
The victory marked a career high both for Lordan and Sole Power’s trainer, Edward Lynam, who said: “We always rated the horse. He’s a very, very fast horse – he’s just mentally a bit immature. But this race was going to suit him because they went mad.
“I’m not saying we thought he’d win but the owner was very keen that we ran in the race and he knows a bit about the form,” adding ominously “He'll be a better horse next year.”
Those who took the odds about Sole Power winning on the basis of this year’s form might well have been relying on the help of second sight or crystal balls. Having kicked off the season by winning an all-weather race at Dundalk and finishing a close fourth to Equiano in the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket the following month, Sole Power made little impact in three runs back in Ireland.
"Sometimes in those sprints in Ireland they go too slow and you can’t get them to relax,” Lynam explained. “That’s not going to happen in the Nunthorpe – he could just sit there. He broke the track record at Dundalk and this is a lucky place for us.”
There were quite a few people who were ruing their luck – including regular rider Pat Smullen who was in action at Killarney for retaining trainer Dermot Weld - but Lordan was not one of them even if he went into the race expecting little more than a riding fee. In an odd turn of events he came to York thinking that his chance of a big winner had passed him by, having missed the winning ride in the Ebor Handicap on Dirar due to his commitments with his main trainer, Tommy Stack, "I thought that I wouldn’t have much of a chance,” he admitted candidly about Sole Power. “He ran well at Newmarket early on in the year and I thought he might be a horse who might take his chance may be next year.
"A three-year-old against the older horses this time of the year, it’s hard. But they went very quick and he's picked up and done it well, so it was good."
Sole Power is now at the top of the mountain, with Lynam now planning a shot at the Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp in October, but O’Brien and his backers at Ballydoyle will now have to decide whether to carry on with Starspangledbanner.
He was brought over from Australia with a three-race plan that had been completed with those victories in the Golden Jubilee Stakes and the July Cup before being retired to stud. Within hours of passing the post in the July Cup connections were left with a hasty decision as the horse would have had to be placed in quarantine at midnight if he was to be ready to travel back to Australia in time for the next southern-hemisphere breeding season.
The decision to carry on racing could be seen as a bold one but also one that has been taken in the belief that further CV-enhancing victories could be gained before the switch to a stallion career is made.
There has to be a possibility now that they may quit while they are ahead rather than risk further damage to a stallion reputation. Already a dual Group One winner in his native Australia, Starspangledbanner has increased his breeding appeal internationally by winning in Britain and the colt has made himself into a highly marketable shuttle stallion for Coolmore operations in both Australia and Ireland. And there is a need for the owners to balance the books on their investment when they bought Starspangledbanner in January, at a cost reported to have been Aus$10million (about £5.8million).
Starspangledbanner’s stud fee at Coolmore Australia, where he would stand alongside his sire Choisir, had apparently been set at Aus$33,000 (about £20,090). Sea The Stars has just completed his first season at stud and has covered 140 mares so the maths may override any desire to end his racing career on a winning note.
But, if the money eventually goes to Coolmore, the power and the glory belong to Lynam and Lordan.
http://www.senore.com/Rio-de-la-Plata-back-on-top-for-Frankie-Dettori-a22620
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