Temple Meads settles the argument in Mill Reef Stakes
Patience can be an underused tool when it comes to horses but it paid off with Temple Meads who won the Group Two Dubai Duty Free Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury.
First Ed McMahon decided not to run in the Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster last week, believing that the five furlongs was too short, and then Richard Mullen had to have the patience - and nerve – to play the waiting game over the six furlongs of the Mill Reef.
When Temple Meads won the Super Sprint at Newbury in July he had looked a two-year-old of great promise but then ran his race far too early in the Gimcrack Stakes at York last month. Jimmy Fortune, who was standing in for Mullen, was fighting a losing battle with the colt as he ran far too freely in the first five furlongs and never stood a chance of last the sixth.
However, McMahon was sure that Temple Meads was not all speed and Mullen elected to wait at the back of the field as Richard Hughes set the tempo on Libranno. Mullen then pulled Temple Meads out for a run on the far side of the field to lead in the final furlong as he beat Formosina by one-and-three-quarter lengths, with Crown Prosecutor another half-length third.
“York was no fault of anyone’s,” Mullen said. “It took Jimmy by surprise as well as me watching from home. In his first two races he’s always been so very laid back. A lot of things contributed to it; at York they’ve got to walk across the knavesmire, he got a bump early on and if Jimmy Fortune is struggling to hold them there isn’t much hope for the rest of us. But we learnt a lot today. We knew we had to drop him out and get him switched off and he switched off lovely, he travelled and I’m glad he repaid the faith we had in him.”
McMahon faith now extends to a crack at Group One level in the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket next month. “It was always at the back of my mind – six furlongs is a little bit far – everybody was saying go for the Flying Childers. But we knew at home that he would get the six furlongs very well and he’s proved the point today.
“He’d only run twice before York, and was only starting to learn the game, but at York the gap opened up and he was away. And Jimmy didn’t have any options really – he just sat against him all the way up and he just ran with the choke out.”
McMahon was definitely going full throttle when Astrophysical Jet, ridden by Graham Gibbons, made it one of the best days in the trainer’s six-year career by winning the Group Three Dubai Airport World Trophy. The filly, who was bought with the 1000 Guineas in mind, has found her niche as a sprinter, having already won a Group Three at the Curragh last month, and McMahon will be looking at Group One races for her next year.
Luca Cumani had won the Dubai Duty Free Handicap three times in the last six years but the victory Forte Dei Marmi looked far from assured early in the home straight. The well-supported Forte Dei Marmi was in the rear and Kieren Fallon found himself trapped on the rail with four furlongs to run. Even as the field spread across the track there was little prospect of a gap for Fallon until past the furlong pole, from where Forte Dei Marmi flew and allowed his jockey enough time to start pulling up before the line as he beat Elliptical by a neck.
Not that Fallon was claiming any credit. “Showing off? I wish," he said with a half-smile. "He got me out of jail. I don’t like going around a field if I can avoid it and I thought there was a run up the inside. A couple of the boys were going for runs and they were in front of me. So I just waited for the gaps to come and we got a lucky run through.”
Although this race is often seen as a trial for the Cambridgeshire, Forte Dei Marmi may well miss that race but Theola is on course for the second leg of the autumn double, the Cesarewitch, having won the Investec Cesarewitch Trial at Newmarket.
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